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Israel admits it trains SLA jail interrogators

September 28, 1999

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel has admitted that it trains interrogators in the notorious Khiam prison run by its client militia in south Lebanon, according to a court document made available to Reuters on Tuesday.

Human rights lawyers said they were surprised by the rare admission, made in an affidavit lodged with the High Court of Justice last week in a case they brought on behalf of four Lebanese imprisoned in the jail without trial.

Lawyer Tamar Pelleg said she believed Israel's Shin Bet security service could now be ordered by the court to stop teaching its client militia, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), "to use torture."

The SLA holds about 150 people without trial in Khiam jail, which rights groups including Amnesty International have branded a place of brutality. It is situated in the village of Khiam in the 15-km (nine miles) deep occupation zone that Israel maintains in south Lebanon, patrolled by Israeli and SLA soldiers.

Israeli Army Operations chief Dan Halutz said in the affidavit that Shin Bet intelligence agents did not interrogate prisoners "face-to-face" in Khiam but taught the SLA how to.

"There is a relationship between Shin Bet and and the South Lebanon Army regarding everything related to intelligence gathering and investigations intended to thwart terror attacks in the security zone against Israeli and SLA soldiers.

"Within this framework Shin Bet agents cooperate with SLA soldiers and also give them professional guidance and instruction," Halutz wrote.

He said Shin Bet agents met SLA soldiers several times a year at Khiam but its administration was left to the SLA.

"I think it's a clear admission of (Israel's) control of the prison. It's more than administration. Administration can be performed by anybody. But here Israel is the boss," Pelleg said.

She and other human rights lawyers have asked Israel's High Court for the immediate release of the four Lebanese detainees and for the right to visit the jail to check their condition.

Israel's Supreme Court recently barred the Shin Bet from using specific forms of physical and psychological pressure to interrogate security detainees in Israel.

Rights groups say the methods constituted torture and Pelleg said Shin Bet could be prevented from teaching them to the SLA.

"If torture is forbidden then it is also forbidden to teach others to use torture. Israel may argue otherwise, but it is my opinion that it applies," said Pelleg, who works with the Hamoked Centre for the Defence of Individuals.

Israel has controlled parts of south Lebanon since 1978. It set up what it calls its security zone in 1985, saying it was needed to protect its northern borders from potential guerrilla attacks and patrols it with the SLA.