I was walking back at night time on Tuesday night from the internet cafe that is about 500m from the place where I am staying with a German family who have been in the Middle East for about 20 years. It was about 12am.

I was about 200m from the house when a jeep pulled up full off army personnel. They asked what I was doing walking around so late at night and where was my identification. I told them I had just been at the internet cafe and was walking home to the place where I was staying. They asked what was the address, I said I wasn’t sure but it was only 200m away. They asked again if I had any identification and I said, “No, it’s in the house.” Then they demanded to know my name and where I was from and what I was doing in Beirut. I answered all these question and they then again asked to see some identification. I repeated the fact that my passport was in the house and they were welcome to come with me to see it.

They then asked me to get into the jeep and, assuming we were going to get my passport, I complied. We then raced off in the other direction and arrived at the army HQ located nearby. I was escorted by two giant army personnel toting Kalashnikovs into the office of the commanding officer. He demanded to know who I was and to see some identification again and I explained to him where it was. He told me I had the face of an Israeli terrorist (:P) and he couldn’t believe I’d walk around at night with no identification unless I had something to hide. I told him they could give me a ride to the place where I was staying and I’d go and get my passport and I’d show him but he didn’t seem to care about that.

He asked if there was anybody who could bring it to them to see. At this stage it was 1:00am and knowing I didn’t want to invite trouble upon my friends I was staying with I told him, “No there wasn’t!” They would have to take me there and wait while I’d go inside and get it. Well, this made them even more suspicious and they seemed convinced I was some sort of spy or terrorist. They all started talking very fast in Arabic and waving their arms around. They then searched me and were surprised to find a laptop and some sort of electronic device (iPod) that looked like it was for recording conversations.

After they had searched me and taken all my things I started to become a little concerned. I reasoned, “You can’t treat tourists like this, how do you expect anyone to visit if you are going to treat them like this?!” “I don’t really think you are a tourist,” the commanding officer said bluntly. He proceeded to fill out some forms which they translated for me and then made me sign, stating where they picked me up and what they’d found when they’d searched me. I then again said this would be very simply solved if we’d just pop by where I was staying and I’d run in and get my passport to show them. The commanding officer said something to the guards, they led me back to the jeep and we proceeded to drive back towards the place where I was staying.

On arrival we didn’t stop though. We carried on right past at high speed, driving for another 30 up into the mountains. We arrived at a police station. The officers told we they were not authorised to take me home. That was the job of the police. They took me inside and sat me down. Then I was asked the same questions again, who I was, why was I here, where was my identification. I got up and said, ‘I’ll just run back down the hill and grab it.’ They weren’t going to accept that and sat me back down. I asked when they were going to be taking me home but they said tonight they couldn’t they’d have to wait until the morning to see the district superintendant.

Thinking this had gone on long enough I told them I was going to go home now, they looked at each other and smiled. The officer said, “I’m sorry we can’t let you do that.” I then remebered I had a young Lebanese friend who was a police officer in Beirut. I asked if we could call him. I called his father and got him on the phone. Unfortunately I remembered he couldn’t speak a jot of english so the conversation was entirely between him and the officers. After the conversation had ended the officer turned to me and said, “He’ll come and get you in the morning.” Resigned to the fact I wasn’t going home I needed to devise a plan for alerting the family I was with about my predicament. I asked to make another call and quickly dialled their number. Telling them I was just ringing another friend, I quickly said, “Hi I won’t make it home tonight, I’ll be fine,” and hung up…

I was then searched again. They took my shoes, belt, rings watch and opened a cell for me. The officer seemed somewhat apologetic at this stage and said, “Well, look, at least there is a mattress here and we’ll bring you some tea in the morning.” Shutting the solid metal door behind him, all that was left was a thin shaft of light that illuminated the mattress. Not knowing what else to do, I started to sing Shine Jesus Shine, over and over until my voice went all squeaky. At that stage I gave thanks to God I was inside and safe, then fell asleep….

In the morning the father of the family I was staying with came up with my passport. He was more than happy to come and was delighted to see everything was ok. He said it wasn’t a problem for him at all to come; he has been to the police station a number of time purely for administration things and they seemed to know him quite well. So after another 15 minutes of questioning and filling out forms I was reunited with my posessions and free to go with the knowledge I had now been a recipient of hospitality from Lebanon’s judicial system.

Julian