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True Lebanon: facts and articles yielding to uncover the truth
Past Articles
On September 14, 1982 while Bachir was speaking in his sister's convent, a twenty-six year old Lebanese man named Habib Tanous Chartouni was performing one last check on the massive bomb -450 pounds of TNT- that he had planted the night before in a room on the second floor, directly above the central meeting hall of the Phalange party headquarters in Achrafieh. The detonator was a highly sophisticated Japanese device designed to set off an explosion from a distance of several miles away. According to Lebanese intelligence sources, the device was supplied by or through Bulgaria, which often acted on behalf of the Soviets in such matters.
Chartouni, a Christian, encountered no difficulty entering the building. There was no reason why he should which, no doubt, was why he was chosen. Chartouni used to live in an apartment on the top floor of party headquarters, and some of his family still lived there. the family had ties to the Gemayels; his uncle was a bodyguard to Sheikh Pierre, and his sister was the girlfriend of one of Bachir's aides. The Phalange guards and party members were used to seeing him around. As added protection though, he carried in his pocket a safe-passage card signed by Elie Hobeika, chief of security for the Lebanese Forces.
After his speech, Bachir bid a warm farewell to his favorite sister, then left for the Phalange headquarters in Achrafieh. Despite the advice of his friends, who urged him for security reasons to avoid following his routine, he insisted on attending the party's regular Tuesday afternoon meeting. This would be the last time because, as president-elect of Lebanon, Bachir was about to resign his party post. Not for anything would he have sacrificed, for nebulous considerations of security, the opportunity to say a personal thank you and farewell to the branch where he had launched his political career ten years earlier.
Security was no tighter then usual at party headquarters that day. There was no need for body searches or identity check, since only party members were invited.
Bachir's car drew up to the curb in front of Phalange headquarters in Achrafieh. He was over an hour late, but they had waited for him before beginning the meeting. As he made his way slowly into the building, stopping to greet old friends and to accept their good wishes, Bachir was watched from a window above. When he entered the ground-floor meeting hall, which was packed with about four hundred party members, Habib Chartouni slipped out of the building and drove to an East Beirut neighborhood called Nasrah, less then a mile from Achrafieh.
At approximately 4:00, Bachir began to speak.
At precisely 4:10 PM, Habib Chartouni pressed the detonator.
The explosion was heard all over Beirut. The three-story building in Achrafieh rose into the air, then collapsed into rubble.The word went out all over Beirut, Lebanon, and the world that an assassination of Bachir Gemayel had been attempted - and had failed. The exact story was hazy, though, and no one seemed quite sure where Bachir was at the moment. Some said he was wounded in the left leg and taken to hospital; others, that he walked away from the blast unharmed. But no one doubted he had escaped, once again. Although the loss was great - twenty six people would ultimately be found dead and over one hundred wounded - the relief was greater. Church bells pealed in the celebration, and Lebanese Forces soldiers fired into the air. The Voice of Lebanon radio exalted: "Today is the resurrection of Lebanon!"
But no one knew where Bachir was. No one could find him.
After several hours, the Phalange-run Voice of Lebanon station went off the air. The state-run station made no announcement, but switched to a program of solemn music. And then came a period of dreadful uncertainty, early in the morning of the next day, Lebanese Prime Minister Wazzan read a statement. Bachir Gemayel, he said, in a breaking voice, had been killed.
This was the reason for the long uncertainty: Bachir's body was unearthed early, in the first wave of rescue attempts. But his face was so badly crushed that no one recognized him. His body was taken with others to a hospital morgue, where it was identified only hours later, by his ring and a nun's letter in his pocket.
Habib Tanous Chartouni has not come into this story before and will not appear afterward, because he is nothing. He was the hand, not the mind, that did the deed. While Chartouni set and detonated the bomb, his control agent, Nabil Alam, waited somewhere in West Beirut. Both Chartouni and Alam were Lebanese Christians, but their loyalties lay with the Syrians.
Chartouni wasn't meant to be caught, and would not have been had he not forgotten something important. he was not, by all accounts, the brightest of men. Although, at a press conference after his capture, Chartouni called Bachir a traitor because of his friendship with Israel, he never meant to hurt anyone, and that the bomb was meant to only scare Bachir and teach him a lesson. It's noteworthy that at-least some of his interrogators believe him. They say that Chartouni was just dumb enough not to have realized.
The thing that Chartouni forgot was that his sister was in the building.
He remembered at the last minute, just as he was about to set off the detonator. He called her to drop everything and get out of the building at once. She ran into the street, screaming hysterically that something terrible was going to happen. Moments later, the building exploded.
She was picked up and interrogated immediately.
"How did you know something terrible was going to happen?"
"My brother told me."
"Where is your brother?"
"I don't know where he is now, but he told me to meet him later at..."
Chartouni was arrested at once. he confessed almost immediately, first to his interrogators and later publicly, at an emotionally charged press conference. When Chartouni tried to blame Bachir for his own death, by saying he had sold out to Israel, a woman journalist leapt up. "You haven't killed a man," she screamed, "you've killed a country!" At the insistence of the Lebanese government, the Lebanese Forces turned Chartouni over to the state. But he was never been brought to trial, even though Amin Gemayel, Bachir's older brother, succeeded his brother as president of Lebanon.No one knows the reason why except Amin, and he hasn't told. Most informed sources say that Amin did not bring Chartouni to trial because he did not want to enhance Bachir's status as a martyr. They say that, had he been able, Amin would have eradicated all memory and trace of his younger brother.
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What happened at Bashir's mass (sept. 2001)
One of the articles that aggravated me the most and rose my level of saturation towards the Syrian occupation all throughout the Lebanese territory was the article of an anonymous man who wrote what happened with him at Bashir's mass in september 2001. The story is the following:
" Like every year we all gathered for the mass of Sheikh Bashir Gemayel, the man - the soldier - the leader - the president - the martyr. This year due to much work at my office I could not be there like usual ahead of time. I actually arrived late.
The church was full and so were the streets leading to it. You could feel the presence of this great man in the eyes of the youth, mostly who don't even know him, after 19 years of his physical absence.
A night before we had received phone calls threatening us not to be present in the mass.. But it's Bashir's mass, how could we not be present? You could see the "mukhabarat" (army intelligence) all around us in the church. They were actually taking pictures of the men and women inside. As we walked out from the church I felt that this year there will be something special for us. A nice surprise awaited us as we marched towards where Bashir had martyred. Tens of "mukhabarat" were waiting for us. They pointed at each one they liked, and their big gorillas pulled those individuals away from the crowd.
We had gotten information about that couple of minutes before, but there was nothing we could do, but walk and hope that our turn won't come. But something within me told me that this year, my turn would come. As we marched I saw one of the "mukhabarat" point at me . I knew then that my time had surely come. Within seconds I was being pulled away by 2 men, away from the crowds and into a building that was occupied by these civilian soldiers. As I was pulled away from my brothers, I could see that helpless look in their eyes that broke my heart to pieces.We walked into the entrance of this old building and a slap right across my face greeted me as my shirt was taken off.I could see another guy whom they had also pulled from street, who was there before me and a step ahead of me in their barbaric procedure, and thus I took a glance of what was to become of me and that helped me to be somewhat ready, as I expected the worse. After searching me throughout, I was blindfolded using my own t-shirt. And then it started, slapping, hitting, kicking that came from everywhere. I could not see anything except the cross on the rosary I have around my neck.. What a beautiful cross, so peaceful yet so powerful; and indeed it lifted up my spirit. I was being pushed without being actually able to see in front of me. We went up one floor and into one of the flats. (Remember I could not see anything). I was made to sit on a chair, as they took my t-shirt off and put a specially made piece of cloth over my eyes and part of my nose. I was handcuffed from behind my back and thru a chair. Meanwhile the slaps, kicks and their renowned beautiful vocabulary followed every step of the way. Then the questioning began, though it was not the first time I was being interrogated, it was indeed the first time it was done in such a manner. Questions... questions.. questions.. (Please do not for a single moment think that everything had calmed down and I was just being asked questions). Their hospitality exceeded ALL expectations. A liar, son-of-a-bitch, an agent for the enemies, ruining my country's reputation, a threat to security, a cocksucker, a dog, an animal, my sister a bitch, and my mother whore, a sample of the names they gave me. And the kick and slaps and punches went on and on and on. It felt like hours but I was in there not more than 30 minutes. What really struck me was the quantity of people that were being brought in, of course I could only hear them. I heard a girl shout out "I cannot believe this, what you think we are animals." next thing I hear was a slap sound.. and the girl started weeping. I wanted to hold her soooooo much and tell her that it will be alright, but. They continued their abuse on all of us. Suddenly they released my hands and were guiding me out of the place, and some of them where murmuring about taking us up to "the ministry of defense" (those of you who follow the Lebanese politics, most know what that means). As they got me up I was still blindfolded, the soldier would not allow me to put my hands before me so as to not hit anything (I was still blindfolded and shirtless), he said that he would guide me out, I brought my hands down as he twisted my left arm. He guided me alright, but into a wall. I could hear them laughing, he pulled me away from the wall and said something about me being an animal for not knowing where to go, and then he banged me into another wall as they laughed some more. I heard the voice of the soldier who initially pulled me away from my brothers, getting closer (as if running towards me) while saying: "where are you taking this son of a bitch, he was the one to break my camera" and then he kicked me with his knee right below my left ribs and then the punches hammered down on my stomach and back.
They are well trained to hit where it does not leave that much of a trace, yet leaves you with agonizing pain. A look at my cross was enough for me to realize that I will be okay. They sat me down again as they swore at Bashir and ridiculed his memory and as they mocked my rosary. Then this guy gets closer to me and holds my head as he bangs his head on mine and talks with this soft voice telling me that I could go now, but when the photos are developed if I happen to be in any of them I will be brought back for further interrogation. He then released my hands, put the shirt on me, guided me out of the flat asked me to put my head down, he took the blindfold off and asked me to walk away without looking backwards and I did just that. I went down the stairs, crossed my face, spat. and went out.
That my dear friends is what happened with me last Friday evening, and that is NOTHING in comparison to what went on with over 150 of the young women and men of the Lebanese Forces who were present at Bashir's mass. Some of my closest friends, who were there and were taken away, underwent much forceful interrogation and for a much longer period. Two of my friends were blindfolded and handcuffed behind their back (like everyone else) and put on top of each other along with the rest of bunch of people they were taking. As the vehicle pulled away a soldier, kicked one of my friends on his back and made him fall out of the truck as it sped away. The other friend stayed the whole night in their hospitality, undergoing barbaric interrogation methods..
That is but a sample of that goes on with the Free Christian youth of Lebanon. That is but a simple illustration of what goes down EVERYDAY with the free women and men of your Christian community, and how our beloved government treats us.
I am a witness to that. My head, legs, back and neck are witness to that. The bruises all over my friends' bodies tell the story of a free nation that refuses to kneel and die.
As for you Bashir and the rest of our martyred comrades who gave their lives for us to remain, we have taken an oath long ago to remain faithful to the cause, to your blood, to Samir and the rest of our comrades and to OUR Lebanon.. and we have. be confident that we will remain, Always.
Always Faithful
Long live Lebanon "back to top
Those are still few of the many terrorist acts and war crimes commited by our fellow "sha2i2a" Syria, that I was able to gather for you, my fellow readers.
At the beginning of January 1976
In Damour and Jieh, two Christian towns south of Beirut, the Palestinians and Syrians went so far as to cut the fingers of Christian children to ensure that they never would be able to pull a gun's trigger. In Damour, at least 300 inhabitants were killed and their churches profaned.May 31, 1976
The Syrians invaded Lebanon and established their rule. The invaders pillaged the towns and villages they went through and humiliated the Lebanese population. The Syrians shelled all the regions under Muslim domination. There must have been over 500 victims, mostly civilians.March 16, 1977
The Syrians murdered Mr. Kamal Joumblatt, they sent Druze to attack Christian villages. The result: At least 1000 people were massacred. The village of Deir Dourit was erased, with 273 dead.February 7, 1978
Hostilities started between the Lebanese Army and the Arab Force of Dissuasion, the FAD, with its Syrian majority and under the command of the Lebanese lieutenant Sami Khatib, as a result of the installation of a Syrian barrage near the Fayadieh Barracks, the seat of the Lebanese military commander of Mount Lebanon. The Syrian soldiers insisted on controlling all Lebanese military vehicles entering the Fayadieh Barracks. They shelled the residential quarters with Stalin Organs and opened fire on the barracks with MBT guns.
Mention must be made that as of that period, Sami Khatib is one of the best Syrian agents in Lebanon. He is responsible for the incarceration of thousands of Lebanese and the disappearance of hundreds of others following their torture.June 27, 1978
Elements from the "special Syrian forces" dragged out of their beds 30 young men from the villages of Kaa and Ras Baalbeck and executed them without any form of trial. The man who headed and completed this job was none other than the Syrian officer Ali Dib.July 1, 1978
The civilian population of East Beirut and its suburbs were shelled by Syrian artillery and started with the residential quarters of East Beirut. The private militia of Rifaat Assad, brother of the Syrian President, circled the free regions around Beirut. The shelling lasted five days and five nights. Heavy caliber shells were used, from heavy cannon to Katyushia rockets and including all kinds of mortars (up to 240 mm), rockets and missiles. According to some obbservers, all sorts of weapon were used, except for aerial bombing. Sixty civilians were killed and over 300 injured.Beginning 1979
The Syrians bombed East Beirut and the adjoining Christian regions. 82, 120 and 160 mm shells fell on the targeted sectors.August 1979
The Syrians shell the villages of Niha, Deir Bella and Douma in North Lebanon.February 2, 1980
On February 2, 1980, the Syrian special forces attacked the village of Knat. The villagers resisted for six days, but the Syrian forces were able to take over the village, using heavy bombardment with tanks and canons killing tens and destroying the village.February 24, 1980
Mr. Selim Laouzi, owner and director of the al Hawadess revue, was kidnapped by the Syrians on the road to the Beirut airport. The mutilated and decomposed body of the journalist was found in the Aramoun forest ten days after his abduction. He was shot twice in the head after having been tortured horribly: the ribs on his right side had been crushed by repeated blows with a bar and his right arm was lacerated to the bone, from his armpit to his elbow.July 23, 1980
Riad Taha, president of the press, was killed at Chourane. His car had been sprayed with bullets. Taha was hit by seven bullets in his face, the back of his head and his breast.March 1981
The towns of Zahlé and East Beirut were shelled. In Lebanon, even the Red Cross was a target for the Syrians. Sister [Nun] Marie Sophie Zoghbi was one of the Red Cross ambulance drivers since the beginning of the war. She had forced her way through the front to the south of the town of Zahlé saadnayel road. Alone at the wheel of her ambulance, she'd gone to fetch the dying in Zahlé syrians shot the vehicle, killing her on the spot. The town's hospital was eradicated by thousands of shells which fell on it during one night. Water, food, and medicine grew rarer and the corpses of some of the wounded who'd died under the shelters couldn't be evacuated. In all, the fighting had left some two hundred dead and five hundred wounded in Beirut alone. The Palestinians, too, had participated actively in the Zahlé killing. The Palestinian military commander was Ahmad Ismail.April 2, 1981,
Syrian artillery suddenly and furiously bombarded East Beirut at a time when students were leaving schools to head home on April 2, 1981. Casualties and injuries were in the Hundreds.September 4, 1981,
Louis Delamarre, the French Ambassador in Lebanon was murdered by the Syrians in West Beirut. France remained indifferent to this murder.February 1982
In the Syrian city of Hama, an insurrection by the Muslim Brothers was suppressed with rare brutality in modern history. The Alawite army isolated the city, cutting off any contact with the outside, and opened a ground and aerial bombing. According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military had placed rubber pipes at the entrance of buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding and pumped in poison gas. It is claimed that there were some 30,000 dead in Hama. The Alawite army attacked the entire population, both Christians and Muslims.April 3, 1982
The murder of Yacov Barsimentov, third secretary at the Israeli Embassy in Paris. The murder was claimed by the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Fractions (FARL), a small terrorist group created and manipulated by the Syrians.April 22, 1982
A booby trapped car exploded at Rue Marbeuf in Paris. Two Syrian diplomats were expelled, and the French Ambassador recalled for consultation.April 27, 1982
Syrians kept assassinating whoever oppose its military intervention in Lebanon. In April 27, 1982 Syrian agents killed Sheikh Ahmad Assaf for his patriotic stands.May 1, 1982
In their contineous attempts to divert the attention of their crimes in Lebanon, the Syrian regime maintained the policy of assassinating religious figures in the towns that are inhabited by mix of Christians and Muslims or Druze. On May 1, 1982 Father Phillipe Abou Sleiman, a priest in Aley, was killed.May 24, 1982
A Syrian attack against the French Embassy in Lebanon. At eight AM on a Monday morning, Anna Comidis, secretary at the commercial service of the French Embassy in Beirut entered the gate of the compound at the wheel of her Renault R12. The car exploded at that very moment. Anna Comidis' body was shredded to pieces. Ten additional people were killed and over twenty were injured. The explosion, estimated as some fifty kilograms of inflammable fuel, was operated from a distance at the moment the car was entering the grounds of the embassy.September 14, 1982
Syria murders the Lebanese-elected president, Bechir Gemayel. The Syrians used Habib Chartouni as an assassin. The murder was perpetrated at the military HQ of the Phalangists in Achrafieh. Habib Chartouni had belonged to the pro-Syrian party PSNS, since 1977, and was recruited by Assaad Hardane, head of the pro-Syrian party in Lebanon. Elie Hobeika, head of the Phalangist security had recruited Habib Chartouni. Hobeika acted in accordance with the Syrians. Ali Douba, chief of the Syrian intelligence services supplied Chartouni with the explosives. Chartouni received half a million Lebanese pounds (700,000 FF at the time). Twenty six people were killed in addition to Bechir Gemayel in that explosion. The Syrian consider Chartouni a hero, and they liberated him in October 1990 when they invaded the Metn. Elias Hraoui, second post Taif president, announced ironically, following the liberation of Chartouni, that inquiry would be opened to find Gemayel's murderers.December 1982
The Syrians destroy the town of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The fighting between the Sunnites of Tripoli and the Syrians started at the beginning of December. The Baal Mohsen quarter was held by the Syrians and their allies while the Bab Tebbanne quarter was controlled by the anti-Syrian Lebanese militia. The Syrians formed a militia loyal to them, the Arab Democratic Party, whose general secretary was Nassib Khatib, though directed by the Alawite Ali Eid. The fighting lasted three years. Tripoli had become a second Beirut.September 1983
Over 110 villages or Christian quarters in the Chouf were ethnically cleansed of their Christian inhabitants: Throats were slit, bodies hacked apart with axes, many were burned alive over fire red, iron bars. Syrian soldiers and members of the Druze community of Lebanon took part in these massacres. Likewise, on November 8, 1982, Israeli Druze officers allowed the Lebanese Druze to massacre the Christian population in certain villages such as Kfarnabrakh, at the foot of the cedars of Mount Barouk.
Walid Joumblatt, the leader of the Lebanese Druze, gave the order to massacre the Chouf Christians.September 1983
A commando of Khomeinist Iranians emerged from its Baalbeck hideout, arrived at Rayak in the Bekaa, and after praying at the mosque exploded a residential building inhabited by Christians, leaving behind dead and wounded. The Syrians present on the premises prevented the Lebanese Civil Defense from removing debris burying two screaming survivors.
Assayed Ahmad Al Fihri, appointed by Khomeiny to head the Hezbollah in the Middle East, is responsible for this massacre at Rayak. The Iranian ambassador in Syria, Ali Akbar Montachami, and the military attaché 'romi Zadem, had been placed at Al Fihri's service.October 23, 1983
250 American soldiers and 70 French soldiers were killed at their HQs in West Beirut. Lebanese and Iranian Islamists supported by Syrian logistics headed the operation. According to certain military sources, both buildings had been packed full of dynamite, which explains the high number of casualties. France and the USA remained indifferent to these massacres. In the wake of this, the soldiers of both countries were repatriated because Beirut had turned into a dangerous city, even for the mightiest fighters of all times.1983-1984
The Syrians shelled and layed siege at the city of Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. The overt objective was to evict the PLO Palestinians. The Syrian army had mobilized militants from Tripoli to take part in that job. According to the evidence of former Lebanese militiamen who participated in the battle of Tripoli on the side of the Syrians, the latter shelled residential zones inhabited by Lebanese civilians and where no Palestinians ever dwelled. The Lebanese militiamen who refused to take part in the destruction of their city were systematically arrested, tortured, and then executed.February 1984
Occupation of West Beirut by Amal, the pro-Syrian Shi'ite militia. On February 6, 1984, Amal supported by Syrian troupes, attacked the Lebanese army stationed in West Beirut. The fighting left at least one hundred dead and over 400 injured. Nabih Berri, Head of Amal, and Ghazi Kanaan, commander of the Syrian forces in Lebanon, are responsible for this slaughter.March 1985
Exodus of tens of thousands of Christians from Iklim El Kharroub and the eastern part of Saida. The Palestinians and Lebanese Druze laid siege to, pillaged and burned over twenty Christian villages. Walid Joumblatt, Yasser Arafat and Syrian officers, planned these massacres.January 1986
Cancellation of the tri-partite agreement by a war between Amine Gemayel's phalangists and Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces which opposed the agreement on the one hand, and Elie Hobeika's partisans on the other hand. Hobeika found refuge among his Syrian friends.
Following the failure of the tri-partite agreement, car bombs started to appear in Beirut and its eastern suburb:
- On Tuesday, March 21, 1986, 11 hours 35, a car bomb exploded in Furn El Chebback (East Beirut), leaving 30 dead and at least 132 injured.
- On May 20, 1986, the French Prime Minister Chirac announced that he was in favor of strengthening ties between France and Syria. He added that a solution for Lebanon could only be found together with Syria.
- On May 21, 1986, a car bomb exploded in the Christian sector, leaving 7 dead and over 100 injured.
- On July 29, 1986, a Mercedes exploded on the Wadih Nahim Street in Ein el Remmaneh, a Beirut suburb, with 31 dead and 128 injured.
- On July 30, 1986, a booby trapped Mercedes exploded in Barbir, West Beirut. The result: 22 dead and 163 - injured. Syria and Elie Hobeika instigated these terrorist cases.September 17, 1986
An explosion took place in the Rue de Rennes in Paris, in front of the doors of the Tati store. Three women and two men were killed, and over 52 were injured.
The French Secret Services accused Colonel Ghazi Kanaan of acting as the terrorist chief. Colonel Kanaan manipulated the killers within a framework of operations determined jointly by Iran and Lybbia under the aegis of Damascus. The operation having concluded successfully, Colonel Kanaan was promoted to the rank of General.September 1986
Colonel Christian Gouttié french military attaché;was killed near the French embassy in Mar Takla, in the region of East Beirut. In Damascus, far more rapidly than was their custom, the Syrians hastened to condemn the murder of the French military attaché.October 7, 1986
Syria's agents murdered the head of the Islamic Shiite Higher Council, Sheikh Soubhi Saleh, who was shot in broad daylight on October 7, 1986.November 22, 1986
On November 22, 1986, the Syrian army kidnapped hundreds of civilians from the city of Tripoli (second largest city in Lebanon) in retaliation for attacks against Syrian military and intelligence positions. The bodies of many who were kidnapped were found in the streets of Tripoli and its suburbs. A week later, the Syrian Special forces liquidated 34 residents of Tripoli on charges of "opposition to the Syrians."August 2, 1987
Dr. Mohammad Choucair, an advisor to Lebanese President Amine Gemayel was killed inside his home in the Syrian controlled part of West Beirut on August 2, 19871987
The provocation of the Druze-Shi'ite inter-faith war and the occupation of West Beirut. Since the beginning of 1987, the tension between Joumblatt and Berri was reaching its apex. For over a year, the two rival militias shared everything in West Beirut, thefts, racketeering and crimes. This tension culminated in the most violent fighting ever seen in West Beirut. These fights, well orchestrated by the Syrians, lasted for a long time, with neither of the two militias managing to gain the upper hand. The Syrians entered West Beirut in February 1987. The Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss and other political and Muslim religious leaders approved the Syrian decision, preferring an Arab army to the Lebanese Army. Hafez el Assad later got rid of the Sunnite Mufti Hassan Khaled on the day the Mufti requested the Syrians to leave Lebanon. The Syrian secret services placed 200 kgs of explosives under his car.On May 8, 1988
An inter-Shi'ite war is provoked between Amal and Hezbollah. The fighting lasted three weeks, in the course of which the Amal militia, financed and manipulated by Damascus, collapsed before the rival militia. This war enabled the Syrians to deploy their forces in the southern Shi'ite suburb of Beirut, having done so a year before in the western suburb.March 1989
The Syrians shell the eastern regions of Beirut. At the end of February 1989, the Lebanese Prime Minister, General Michel Aoun, decides to close all the illegal ports in Lebanon that allow drug traffic. The Syrian response was rapid: A shelling of the regions controlled by the Lebanese army, with an average of 6000 shells per day. The Syrian forces used for this fight totaled about 20,000 men who were under the command of Generals Gazi Kanaan and Ali Hammoud.The Syrians killed the Spanish ambassador to Lebanon.
In their wild shelling of the Lebanese population, the Syrian hit the residence of Mr. Pedro Manuel de Aristegui, Spanish Ambassador of Lebanon. A shell exploded and destroyed the building where the diplomat's residence was located, killing the ambassador, his father-in-law, his sister-in-law, and the Lebanese writer Toufic Youssef Aouad. Despite the confirmation that the 240 mm shell had come from the Syrian lines, the official circles in Madrid refused to accuse the Syrians.November 22, 1989
It was 13:50 in Beirut, when the armored Mercedes of René Mouawwad, accompanied by Syrian soldiers was blown into pieces. Two hundred kilos of TNT had exploded under his car. In addition to Mouawwad, 17 Syrian soldiers perished as well. It is to be noted that René's wife never submitted any complaint against the Syrians. Worse still, she continues to this day to collaborate with the Syrians, her husband's murderers.October 13, 1990
in Beirut, the Syrian Air Force begins to bomb the free regions. The bombing lasted until 14.00, five hours after the surrender of the Lebanese Prime Minister.October 13, 1990
The Syrians liquidated the Sayah family in the village of Bsous. Colette Sayah, aged 18, awoke one morning to the noise of Syrian airplanes. The Sayah family hastened to take shelter in a ground floor room. Shortly before 8 AM, Colette heard the first bursts of an automatic and the rumble of tanks in the village streets. Outside, men were shouting: "Out! Out! You dogs, you!" One by one, the members of the Sayah family left their shelter. In the street, in the house, there were many tens of Syrian soldiers. They took away Colette, her mother and her aunts into an adjoining building under construction. They'd barely arrived there when they heard a series of shots.
The Syrians had just killed all the men of the family. The father and a cousin with a bullet in their heads, one of the brothers was shot through his heart. Another brother was still breathing. Colette asked them to call an ambulance, but the Syrians preferred that the boy die. He will die in his sister's arms. Emile and Joseph, the two uncles, were executed in a staircase. The corpses will lie in the middle of the road until evening, surrounded by a humming cloud of flies and bees.
The Hraoui government announced that there had been no massacres.The massacre of Dahr al Wahch.
The people of the village of Dahr al Wahch saw Syrian soldiers push a column of Lebanese prisoners who were walking in their shorts towards some unknown destination. A nun, a nurse at the governmental hospital of Baabda, saw the arrival of corpses and of the Red Cross ambulances. "I counted between 75 and 80, she explained. Most of them had a bullet in the back of their heads or in their mouth. The corpses still carried the mark of cords around their wrists." The rigidity of the corpses fixed their crossed arms behind their backs. They were naked, wearing only shorts. Some ten of them had their eyes gouged out, another ten had an arm or leg cut off. All had been shot in their heads. There can be no doubt about their execution. The Hraoui government announced that there had been no massacres.
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All the world organizations that struggle to defend the Rights of Man have published documents about torture in Syria. The following is a document published in Geneva in May 1984 by the "Swiss Association for the Defense of the Liberties of Political Prisoners in Syria." This document, entitled "The Rights of Man in Syria" refers to the treatments reserved for political prisoners held by the Damascus secret services.
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Damour lays across the Sidon - Beirut highway about 20 km south of Beirut on the slopes of a foothill of the Lebanon range. On the other side of the road, beyond a flat stretch of coast, is the sea. It was a town of some 25,000 people, containing five churches, three chapels, seven schools, private and public, and one public hospital where Muslims from near-by villages were treated along with the Christians, at the expense of the town.
On 9 January 1976, three days after Epiphany, the priest of Damour Father Mansour Labaky, was carrying out a Maronite custom of blessing the houses with holy water. As he stood in front of a house on the side of the town next to the Muslim village of Harat Na'ami, a bullet whistled past his ear and hit the house. Then he heard the rattle of machine-guns. He went inside the house, and soon learned that the town was surrounded. Later he found out by whom and how many -- the forces of Sa'iqa, consisting of 16,000 Palestinians and Syrians, and units of the Mourabitoun and some fifteen other militias, reinforced by mercenaries from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and a contingent of Libyans.
Father Labaky telephoned the Muslim sheikh of the district and asked him, as a fellow religious leader, what he could do to help the people of the town. 'I can do nothing,' he was told 'They want to harm you. It is the Palestinians. I cannot stop them.'
While the shooting and some shelling went on all day, Father Labaky telephoned a long list of people, politicians of both the Left and the Right, asking for help. They all said with apologies and commiserations that they could do nothing. Then he telephoned Kamal Jumblatt, in whose parliamentary constituency Damour lay. 'Father,' Jumblatt said, 'I can do nothing for you, because it depends on Yasser Arafat.' He gave Arafat's phone number to the priest. An aide answered, and when he would not call Arafat himself, Father Labaky told him, 'The Palestinians are shelling and shooting at my town. I can assure you as a religious leader, we do not want the war, we do not believe in violence.' He added that nearly half the people of Damour had voted for Kamal Jumblatt, 'who is backing you,' he reminded the PLO man. The reply was, 'Father, don't worry. We don't want to harm you. If we are destroying you it is for strategical reasons.'
Father Labaky did not feel that there was any less cause for worry because the destruction was for strategical reasons, and he persisted in asking for Arafat to call off his fighters. In the end the aide said that they, PLO headquarters, would 'tell them to stop shooting'.By then it was eleven o'clock in the evening. As the minutes passed and the shooting still went on, Father Labaky called Jumblatt again on the telephone and told him what Arafat's aide had said. Jumblatt's advice was that the priest should keep trying to make contact with Arafat, and call other friends of his, 'because', he said, 'I do not trust him'.
At about half-past eleven the telephone, water and electricity were all cut off. The first invasion of the town came in the hour after midnight, from the side where the priest had been shot at earlier in the day. The Sa'iqa men stormed into the houses. They massacred some fifty people in the one night. Father Labaky heard screaming and went out into the street. Women came running to him in their nightdresses, 'tearing their hair, and shouting "They are slaughtering us!" The survivors, deserting that end of the town, moved into the area round the next church. The invaders then occupied the part of the town they had taken. Father Labaky describes the scene:
'In the morning I managed to get to the one house despite the shelling to bring out some of the corpses. And I remember something which still frightens me. An entire family had been killed, the Can'an family, four children all dead, and the mother, the father, and the grandfather. The mother was still hugging one of the children. And she was pregnant. The eyes of the children were gone and their limbs were cut off. No legs and no arms. It was awful. We took them away in a banana truck. And who carried the corpses with me? The only survivor, the brother ofthe man. His name is Samir Can'an. He carried with me the remains of his brother, his father, his sister-in-law and the poor children. We buried them in the cemetery, under the shells of the PLO. And while I was burying them, more corpses were found in the street.'
The town tried to defend itself. Two hundred and twenty-five young men, most of them about sixteen years old, armed with hunting guns and none with military training, held out for twelve days. The citizens huddled in basements, with sandbags piled in front of their doors and ground-floor windows. Father Labaky moved from shelter to shelter to visit the families and take them bread and milk. He went often 'to encourage the young men defending the town'. The relentless pounding the town received resulted in massive damage. In the siege that had been established on 9 January the Palestinians cut off food and water supplies and refused to allow the Red Cross to take out the wounded.
Infants and children died of dehydration. Only three more townspeople were killed as a result of PLO fire between the first night and the last day, 23 January. But on that day, when the final onslaught came, hundreds of the Christians were killed. Father Labaky goes on: 'The attack took place from the mountain behind. It was an apocalypse. They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting 'Allahu Akbar! God is great! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad 'And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children.'
Whole families were killed in their homes. Many women were gang-raped, and few of them left alive afterwards. One woman saved her adolescent daughter from rape by smearing her face with washing blue to make her look repulsive. As the atrocities were perpetrated, the invaders themselves took photographs and later offered the pictures for sale to European newspapers. Survivors testify to what happened. A young girl of sixteen, Soumavya Ghanimeh, witnessed the shooting of her father and brother by two of the invaders, and watched her own home and the other houses in her street being looted and burned. She explained: 'As they were bringing me through the street the houses were burning all about me. They had about ten trucks standing in front of the houses and were piling things into them. I remember how frightened I was of the fire. I was screaming. And for months afterwards I couldn't bear anyone to strike a match near me. I couldn't bear the smell of it'.
She and her mother Mariam, and a younger Sister and infant brother, had been saved from being shot in their house when she ran behind one Palestinian for protection from the pointing gun of the other, and cried out 'Don't let him kill us!'; and the man accepted the role of protector which the girl had suddenly assigned to him. 'If you kill them you will have to kill me too,' he told his comrade. So the four of them were spared, herded along the streets between the burning houses to be put into a truck, and trans-ported to Sabra camp in Beirut. There they were kept in a crowded prison hut. 'We had to sleep on the ground, and it was bitterly cold.'
When eventually Father Labaky found the charred bodies of the father and brother in the Ghanimeh house 'you could no longer tell whether they were men or women'.
In a frenzy to destroy their enemies utterly, as if even the absolute limits of nature could not stop them, the invaders broke open tombs and flung the bones of the dead into the streets. Those who escaped from the first attack tried to flee by any means they could, with cars, carts, cycles and motorbikes. Some went on foot to the seashore to try to get away in boats. But the sea was rough and the wait for rescue was long, while they knew their enemies might fall upon them at any moment. Some 500 gathered in the Church of St Elias. Father Labaky went there at six in the morning when the tumult of the attack awakened him. He preached a sermon on the meaning of the slaughter of innocents. And he told them candidly that he did not know what to tell them to do. 'If I say flee to the sea, you may be killed. If I say stay here, you may be killed.'
An old man suggested that they raise a white flag. 'Perhaps if we surrender they may spare us.' Father Labaky gave him his surplice. He put it on the processional cross and stood it in front of the church. Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door, three quick raps, then three lots of three. They were petrified. Father Labaky said that he would go and see who was there. If it was the enemy, they might spare them. 'But if they kill us, at least we shall die all together and we'll have a nice parish in Heaven, 500 persons, and no check points!' They laughed, and the priest went to the door.
It was not the enemy but two men of Damour who had fled the town and had seen the white flag from the seashore. They had come back to warn them that it would not help to raise a flag. 'We raised a flag in front of Our Lady, and they shot at us.'
Again they discussed what could be done. The priest told them that one thing they must do, although it was 'impossible', was to pray for the forgiveness of those who were coming to kill them. As they prayed, two of the young defenders of the town who had also seen the flag walked in and said, 'Run to the seashore now, and we will cover you.
The two youths stood in front of the church and shot in the direction from which the fedayeen were firing. It took ten minutes for all the people in the church to leave the town. All 500 got away except one old man who said he could not walk and would prefer to die in front of his own house. He was not killed. Father Labaky found him weeks later in a PLO prison, and heard what had happened after they left. A few minutes after they had gone, 'the PLO came and bombed the church without entering it. They kicked open the door and threw in the grenades.' They would all have been killed had they stayed. The priest led his flock along the shore to the palace of Camille Chamoun. But when they got there they found it had already been sacked and partly burnt. They found shelter, however, in the palace of a Muslim, who 'did not agree with the Palestinians', and then got into small boats Which took them out to a bigger boat, in which they sailed to Jounieh. 'One poor woman had to give birth to her baby in the little open boat on the rough winter sea.'
In all, 582 people were killed in the storming of Damour. Father Labaky went back with the Red Cross to bury them. Many of the bodies had been dismembered, so they had to count the heads to number the dead. Three of the men they found had their genitals cut off and stuffed into their mouths.
The horror did not end there, the old Christian cemetery was also destroyed, coffins were dug up, the dead robbed, vaults opened, and bodies and skeletons thrown across the grave yard. Damour was then transformed into a stronghold of Fatah and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine). The ruined town became one of the main PLO centers for the promotion of international terrorism. The Church of St Elias was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles and also as a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave.
The commander of the combined forces which descended on Damour on 23 January 1976 was Zuhayr Muhsin, chief of al-Sa'iqa, known since then throughout Christian Lebanon as 'the Butcher of Damour'. He was assassinated on 15 July 1979 at Cannes in the South of France.
Click here for more pictures of the massacre of Damour.
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Terrorism Martyrs
September 14, 1982: The Lebanese President, Mr. Bashir Gemayel was assassined in a massive explosion made of Semtex-H 50 Kg., set up by the Syrian agent Habib El Shartouni by an order from Colonel Mohamad Ghanem of the Syrian Intelligence, who in turn got the order from the President of Syria Hafez el Assad.
November 22, 1989: The Lebanese President, Mr. Rene Mouawad was assassinated by a huge explosive devise made of C-4, while driving to meet with Cabinet Members. The head of the Syrian Intelligence Ghazi Kanaan was behind the assassination.
October 21, 1990: Dany Chamoun, the son of a former Lebanese President, who was preparing to run for presidency, was brutaly killed with his American wife and 2 children (age 5 & 7) by the head of the Syrian Intelligence Ghazi Kanaan.
May 9, 1989: Mufti Hassan Khaled was assassinated by the Syrian intelligence after he confronted the Syrians with the Onesco Massacre (that happened days earlier), which the Syrians did to instigate a religious conflict.
Finaly, the newest addition to the list:
February 14, 2005: Rafik el Hariri was assasinated by an estimated 350kg bomb that killed him along with 15 other people. The Syrian governement was held responsible along with the pro-syrian lebanese governement. For more information on how the massacre took place, click here.
1976: Moussa al Sader: kidnaped since 1976, he was flying to an international conference in Lybia, but stopped in Syria first and was never seen again. He was against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and believed in a free Lebanon.
March 16 1977: Kamal Joumblat was assassined on March 16 1977 at a Syrian check point after speaking out against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Ghazi Kanaan, the Head of the Syrian intelligence was behind the assassination.
January 2004: Mr. Elias Hobeika was assassined on January 2004 on his way to Beirut International Airport to flight to the trial of Sabra and Shatila in the International Court. Hobeika was a Syrian top agent at the time of the Massacre, and his timed sudden death was well planned by the Syrians to keep their involvement of the massacre clear.
May 20 2002: Mr. Ramzi Irani's body was found on May 20 2002 in the trunk of his car two weeks after his dissapearance. Lebanese General Security Jamil El Sayed is responsible for Ramzi's death. The order came from the head of the Syrian Intelligence Ghazi Kanaan.
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Genocide and Massacre of the Lebanese people
Copyright © 2004 Lebanese Front
Those are just few of the numerous massacres attempted by Syria, showing us her "unlimitted love". For more pictures about the war, click here. I think there is no need for me to say anything, for the pictures speak for themselves.
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How Syria treats those who stand in her way
Copyright © 2002 CCFL
Once again people, Syria's keen way of taking care of the people who stood in its way. I have to admit, it is a bit unusual.
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