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A 23-year-long Story of Uncertainty, Anxiety and Agony in Lebanon

December 5, 2006

It was like re-living one's life all over again.

When the Kingfisher flight landed at Bajpe airport on Saturday, November 11, it carried over a hundred passengers - businessmen shuttling between cities to beat the boardroom deadlines, Gulf-based NRIs returning home for a well-earned holiday, some arriving to attend weddings and other ceremonies, a few others having caught the flight on emergency visits and many others.


A girl of 18 went abroad with a big dream...

But much less known to many of the passengers or the crew was that there was a special passenger on the flight - one who was fortunate enough to see her homeland again, after a long, long gap of 23 years. There could be occasions of homecoming for many others after as many years or even longer. But, for this passenger, the long period of 23 years, was one of trauma, tension and terror.


...now back with her mother

Dream becomes nightmare

Pauline Hilda Crasta, from Palimar in Udupi district, is the eldest born in a not-so-well-to-do family. As a young girl in early 1980's was dreaming of going abroad to earn more money and build a better future for her parents and sisters. Her father Philip Crasta was working as an attender with Syndicate Bank, Palimar. With the help of a cousin, she landed in Kuwait on a visit visa in the hope of finding a job.

In ealry 1983 she wrote her first letter home after reaching Kuwait. Two months later, she informed her parents that she had secured a job in an affluent household in Kuwait and promised to send her full salary home immediately on being paid. Another 15 days later, another letter was received at home which said she was being taken for a 15-day tour of Lebanon.

That scripted the long story of trauma for her and her family members back home. Months and years passed. There was no communication from her ever since. The cousin, according to the family, was circumspect about any information regarding her welfare or whereabouts.


Pauline flanked by her mother Cecilia, brother-in-law Francis and sister Flora, after her return

No communication

Sometime in 1992, Pauline's younger sister Flora received a letter from her, which narrated a sad story that she had been confined to a house belonging to one Mohammed Ali Saad and that she was held a virtual prisoner. She had provided her sister with her address, phone numbers etc. with a frantic request to somehow have her released from captivity.

Flora replied saying that her three sisters, after waiting in vain for many years, had married already and that everyone had now been eagerly looking forward to her return. When there were again letters from Pauline complaining why her letters were not being replied to, the family only then realized that letters from Pauline's home were being withheld from her !


Pauline with another sister and her children

Appeals to top level

In February 1993, her mother Cecilia wrote to the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, seeking release of Pauline from her captor in Lebanon. When the letter was forwarded by the PM's office to the Indian Embassy in Beirut for action, th embassy officials called Pauline to their office and obtained a statement from her, which said she was happy there and was being looked after well. She also said she was staying with that family of her own accord.

It was obvious that she gave that statement under duress. And the embassy officials, whether aware or unaware of the circumstances in which she deposed so, only faithfully passed on her statement to the family in Palimar. On the other hand, Pauline, on her own, continued to write to her family begging that she be rescued.

The family continued to live in agony and suspense for further years. In 1998, Cecilia wrote to the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee attaching copies of all letters received from the Embassy of India in Beirut. She also mentioned in the letter that, should her daughter not be rescued, all members of her family would resort to mass suicide.

The prime minister's office got alerted and sent an urgent message to the embassy in Beirut. Three months later, Sanjiv Kumar, an official of the embassy, replied saying that upon enquiry she had been found to be happy and that she was facing no trouble from the family. The letter also carried an attachment from Pauline herself, in her own hand, that she was happy there. A mention that she would return home in December 1998 brought some glimmer of hope to the family.

But the family's hope that Pauline would spend her Christmas with them wilted when she failed to come down. There was no communication from her for some time either. Soon a letter was received, but the contents were not glad tidings. She said she was not being allowed to move out and was under total house arrest.


Pauline with Mohammed Ali Saad's aged mother

Intervention by Dr Shanbhag

At this stage, the younger sister Flora decided to go a step further and seek assistance from outside. With the help of the Friends' Club of Padubidri, she sought the intervention of Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag and the Consumers' Forum, Basrur. The forum swung into action at once and contacted the Indian Embassy in Beirut seeking its full report. It also alerted all organizations of Dakishina Kannada origin in the Gulf with a view of mobilizing support and public opinion.

A turning point was a detailed report by Dr Shanbhag in 'Udayavani' dated October 21, 1999 which elicited worldwide attention to the case. Several US, UK and European newspapers reproduced the story. The forum, in association with human rights organizations, flashed the messages through the Internet and email to over 150 human rights organizantions the world over withing 36 hours. Over 40,000 signed messages from all over the world assured support to the cause.

Determined to take the case to its logical conclusion, the Basrur forum managed to speak over phone to the Lebanese president direct and sought his personal intervention in the matter. He assured to have a meeting between Pauline and Indian embassy officials arranged.

As it was their wont, yet again the embassy officials washed their hands off saying that Pauline had submitted that she was happy there and that there was nothing they could do about it. However, under pressure from international human rights groups, the Lebanese government agreed to conduct an enquiry into the case by the prosecutor general of Lebanon.

Even here Mohammed Ali Saad is said to have managed to get a statement of well-being from her under duress. In the meantime, the human rights activists came to know that Pauline was being penalized by caning for having attempted to be released ! She could not convey her predicament even when the Basrur forum convener spoke to her in Konkani to enquire after her well-being.

However, an escape route came in the form of unfortunate bombing of Beirut by Israeli jets in June 2006. In the commotion, she managed to escape from her long and inhuman captivity and took shelter in the house of a woman of Mangalorean origin. Flora had given her the mobile number of her husband Francis, employed in a school in Permannur on the outskirts of Mangalore. However, since Pauline's passport was still in the custody of Mohammed Ali Saad, she could not travel to India.

Pauline finally approached the Lebanese human rights activist Dhima, who put in the best of her efforts to give full justice to Pauline. On hearing her full story, Dhima filed a complaint against Mohammed Saad Ali with the Lebanese police and got Pauline's passport back in her possession.


Putting the traumatic part of her life behind her, Pauline has a new lease of life now

Leave her alone

Speaking to Daijiworld at the Mangalore office, Pauline's sister Flora's husband Francis requested well-wishers and media to desist from visiting her even to give sympathy and solace. She is still under the ill-effects of the trauma and is undergoing counselling. She would require a minimum period of six months of rest to return to her normal state. Pauline is bitter about the callous and heartless attitude of the Indian embassy officials for so many years.

He said that after the Lebanese sponsor married his second wife Maya, Pauline's miseries had begun. It was the end of the tunnel for Pauline when she finally flew from Beirut to Kuwait, then to Delhi and Mumbai en route to Mangalore.

Kudos to Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag, the Consumers' Forum, Basrur, Lebanese human rights activist Dhima, human rights and all other organizations from all over the world who helped Pauline in her home-coming. Many Gulf-based organizations and individuals, esp. Dayan D'Souza Mukamar in Dubai, had mobilized public opinion and support from the Middle East and around.

(With inputs from family sources, Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag and Udayavani)

Postscript:

That the Asian expatriates are treated with contempt and inhuman attitudes in some countries is an established fact. There could be hundreds of Paulines in different places, suffering similar ordeal in different countries. It is only that a very few cases come to light. Stories are around that many Asian workers are rotting in jail in the Middle East for no fault of theirs and on false charges levelled by others to save their own skin. Will their day of Deliverance ever come? Will they get their saviours some day?