The Forgotten Hostages: Lebanese : Kidnapings: An unknown number have been abducted, usually because of their religion.

The plight of foreign hostages in Lebanon is continually in the news, but generally less known is the fact that many Lebanese themselves are seized as hostages.

Since the civil war began in 1975, no one knows how many of this country’s citizens have been abducted and killed, by one side or the other, depending on their religion.

This has come to be known as the “battle of the IDs,” because religion is spelled out on Lebanese identity cards, and much of this activity takes place at the so-called Green Line that divides Beirut into predominantly Christian and Muslim sectors.

In one instance, a woman driving from East Beirut to West was stopped by a young man who wanted a ride to the other side. She agreed but, upon noticing that the crossing point was virtually deserted, decided to turn around.

“But the young man begged me to keep going,” she said. “It was the worst decision I have ever made.”

Four gunmen stepped out, stopped the car and demanded the young man’s papers. He was not carrying them.

“I think he deliberately left them at home because people were being killed according to the religious affiliation shown on their IDs,” the woman recalled. In any case, the young man was dragged out of the car and taken away.

The gunmen threatened to take the woman with them for questioning and relented only when her daughter, 7, began screaming. One of the men told the child: “Don’t cry. I won’t take your mother away from you.”

Like all the other women who agreed to talk with a reporter about their experiences, this woman asked that she not be identified by name.

Foreign women in Beirut rely on their gender as a kind of immunity, but where Lebanese women are concerned, it has been no help. Two years ago a young woman working as a paramedic was abducted along with her male partner, and their captors forced them to drive to a deserted area, where they were blindfolded.

“They said they would execute my partner first, then me,” the woman recalled.

She said she heard shots and almost passed out. Then the gunmen laughed and removed her blindfold, revealing that her partner had not been hurt but was shaking with terror.

Both were freed, and a higher-up in their captors’ militia, who had interceded, apologized. “As we were driving back,” she said, “we heard some men calling to us. It was our kidnapers, waving and smiling.”

She said she sees them from time to time and that they continue to greet her cordially. As for their motive, she guesses that she and her partner were to be traded for victims held in East Beirut.

For the families of Lebanese men who are abducted, life is difficult. Legally, the victims are not considered dead until 10 years have passed. In the meantime, their assets are frozen.

“My husband’s bank accounts are frozen,” a Lebanese woman whose husband disappeared in 1985 lamented recently. She said she has turned for help to a lawyer, who is working his way through the red tape woven by the Lebanese government, which itself is hostage to the war.

Solving financial problems has been easier for her than solving social problems. “People call me and others like me ‘dead/alive widows,’ ” she said.

The woman, who has two teaching jobs, does not talk openly about her husband’s abduction for fear that her students might try to take advantage of it and threaten her for higher grades.

A week before her husband was abducted, she said, his brother, the brother’s wife and their son were abducted. The family was well-to-do, and it was assumed that ransom would be sought. She said her husband withdrew money from his bank and went to talk with the abductors, whose identity he knew. He did not return.

On several occasions she has been approached by people who said they had information about her husband, information they offered to exchange for money, usually the equivalent of about $200. She said she has been tempted but has refused, although she knows others who have.

“The foreign hostages’ families have support from so many sources,” she said. “We have no one.”