Muhammad Shawkat Abu Roudeina

Above: Mohammed Abu Roudeina displays a paper from the International Committee of the Red Cross, identifying him as a survivor of the massacres. Photograph by Philip Reynaers.

I was at home with my father, my mother, and my sister. When the shelling started, we were at the home of my father’s uncle. There, the shelling started again, and we went into the bedroom, the men staying in the living room. Then we went to a neighbour’s house. There were about 25 or more of us. A little while later, we heard the cries of a girl who had been injured in the back. Armed men had stationed themselves in the area. Then we heard shooting, screams and strange voices. Aida, my cousin, went up to the shop and turned on the light. A man slit her throat and they dragged her by her hair. She started screaming “Daddy!” then her voice went dead. Her father went to follow her. They killed him immediately. That’s how they realised that we were in the house. They came down to the floor above us, where they broke and ransacked everything and we heard them calling out to each other, “George, Tony...” When we heard them breaking everything our voices rose, and that’s how they knew that we were on the floor below. One of them came down and saw us. He immediately told the others, and they all came down. My father was sitting on a chair, and as soon as he saw them, he kissed me, put some cologne on me and told my mother to take good care of the children. My father’s cousin said to his wife, “the children are your responsibility.”

I will never forget. The image of that day is engraved in my memory. They ordered the men to stand against the wall. They made us go out behind them into the road. When I got to the door, I looked up at the red sky, red streaked with flare grenades. Once we arrived at the beginning of the road, we heard the shots fired at my father and my uncle, as well as some shouting. We walked several metres, flanked by armed men. My cousin saw her father and she started screaming. I saw my father’s car, which they had opened and were sitting in. That image is also engraved in my memory, because I asked my mother what they were doing with my father’s car but she didn’t reply. As we walked along we saw the dead people.

They took us to the Sports Centre, and they placed us there in a room where there was a woman and her children. They brought people there. They took some of them away in cars and killed the others. At that moment, the Israeli tanks were there. Suddenly a mine that had been there since the beginning of the Israeli invasion exploded. They ran away, and so did we.

Mr Abu Roudeina lost his father, his (pregnant) sister, his brother-in-law and three other members of his family.

The above text is an extract from the Complaint lodged in Belgium against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Amos Yaron and other Israelis and Lebanese responsible for the massacre. The full text of the Complaint can be found in the section of this website titled The Case Against The Accused.

[The Sabra & Shatila Massacres]