Lebanese Officers at LB Borders: Those whom are with Kids Get Out!!

So it is getting worse with the Lebanese officers at the Masnaa border Damascus/Beirut. I left Beirut past Sunday and as usual; same scene of crowd at the Lebanese border, but that is never the problem.

I said last time that it was the first time I was asked to wait for a certain time to check my paper, I usually wait at the Syrian border.

Past Sunday I waited for half an hour and the officer “awakened” at his fault that this is not a Syrian line!

I asked him:

- You saw me waiting, you saw my Syrian ID, why haven’t you said a word before?!

- Well I am blind! He said that nervously and as a hardworking victim.

- Right. I said.

I am not sure what my plan was but I went back to the bus- I took a bus this time because it was leaving and I didn’t want to wait for a taxi to be full for I was leaving to Turkey the same day.

So one of the guys working in the bus took my ID and gave it to a Lebanese friend of his who knows an officer. My ID has been checked because I am a female.

To my surprise, maybe I shouldn’t be, I was the only passenger who got her papers done in the bus. The rest of the passengers were not allowed to wait inside the building, but due to the locked building, they are left outside.

I heard one Lebanese who was wearing civilian clothes say in front of me as he passed:

- I wish they would give the order to hit them.

So when I saw one Lebanese officer was hitting in the air with a leather belt, some said he did hit Syrian workers with it, the whole thing was authorized by the Lebanese officials.

Torture is legal in Lebanon.

I did not leave the building though my papers were stamped, I stayed and looked.

Since it was so crowded inside, the hardworking Lebanese officers started to feel hot and annoyed at the yells of children:

- All those who are with children get out!

Get out where exactly? To the waiting hall?? Or under the Summer sun For hours?

After that, I saw three Lebanese officers dragging by force the Syrian workers from the lines and throwing them outside.

One of workers screamed:

- I have been waiting on this line since 1 o’clock.

It was five o’clock the time when he was dragged outside.

I left the bus behind me; I saw a taxi and asked him to take me to Damascus with him. I would have never left the border till midnight.