The Last Ansar Detention Camp Inmates Freed; IDF Bulldozers Level the Area

The last 752 inmates of the Ansar detention camp were freed today and they had hardly left when a fleet of Israel Defense Force bulldozers moved in to level the large tented and hutted area.

The demolition proceeded rapidly amid clouds of dust and the roar of diesel motors. It underlined Israel’s determination to get the IDF out of south Lebanon as swiftly as possible and to erase what had become a symbol of Israel’s troubles, its ambiguous and changing role, in Lebanon.

The Ansar camp was established in the early months of the Lebanon war in 1982 when the IDF was sweeping victoriously toward Beirut. It was set up to house thousands of captured Palestinian terrorists, Syrian army regulars, suspected saboteurs and persons considered for one reason or another to be security risks.

In November, 1983, 4,500 prisoners were released from Ansar in exchange for six Israeli soldiers held by El Fatah, the terrorist arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Later, six more IDF soldiers taken prisoner by the Syrians were exchanged for 291 Syrian soldiers at Ansar.

But the depopulated camp filled up rapidly with new categories of terrorists, guerrillas and security risks. About 1,200 detainees were removed from Ansar yesterday and taken to a new, $400,000 “escape-proof” prison compound inside Israel.

These were known terrorists, considered too dangerous to remain at large. But their transfer across the border has already raised troublesome legal questions for Israel.

NATURE OF LATEST RELEASED PRISONERS

The inmates released today were members of organizations hostile to Israel but, unlike those transferred yesterday, were not known to have participated in attacks on the IDF. Freeing them was a “calculated risk,” according to Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Levy. But the IDF was prepared to take it to remove what the officer in command of the camp had called a “festering sore.”

The prisoners were sent home. Most of them, about 450, live in parts of Lebanon already evacuated by the IDF. They were loaded onto Safari trucks which took them to the Litani River bridges. There they were turned over to representatives of the International Red Cross. The remainder were returned to their home villages in the areas still held by Israel.

The departing prisoners were dressed in blue track suits, provided them by the IDF. They looked like joggers rather than prisoners. Each carried his personal possessions and a letter from the IDF warning them to refrain from future hostile acts against Israel or suffer retribution.

“You have been released even though you have committed crimes,” the letter said. “We shall be keeping a watchful eye on you.” They left the camp singing nationalist songs and shouting anti-Israel slogans–much of it apparently for the benefit of the television cameras of the international news media.

Ansar is located about 10 kilometers north of the Litani River and 15 kilometers from the coast. To some extent it marked the perimeters of the new IDF line in the western sector of south Lebanon. Its dismantling will hasten completion of the second stage of the IDF’s three-stage withdrawal operation.

It was evident the IDF was losing no time. Bulldozers uprooted utility polls and other structures which were loaded onto trucks for transportation back to Israel. Also extracted were the concrete blocks on which the tents and huts had rested to prevent prisoners from digging escape tunnels.

ISSUE OF LEGALITY

But if security measures were strict at Ansar, its administration was relatively benign. IRC representatives visited the camp weekly. The prisoners were also allowed regular communication with their families in Lebanon. This will no longer be feasible for the inmates transferred to the new detention camp in Israel. Experts differ on the legality of transferring prisoners from an occupied area into a foreign country.

But most legal authorities in Israel take issue with an IRC complaint filed in Geneva today that the transfer is in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention governing the treatment of prisoners of war. Israel does not regard these men as POWs because they do not conform to the Geneva Convention’s definition of soldiers.

Under the Convention, a POW is a captured fighter who wears a uniform, is under the command of a recognized authority, bears arms openly and behaves under the established norms of behavior in combat.

The legal experts here say both the Geneva Convention and Israel’s emergency regulations allow an occupying power to detain and transfer persons whose freedom might endanger the occupying army, their own safety and the safety of the residents among whom they live.