From the books
Much of rebuilt downtown Beirut is inaugurated as 'Beirut reborn'.
Posters ('Le Liban vit'), full-page press advertisements and television spots hailed the completion, with no reference to the war.
In the list of 2002 ›111101 entry from the books the books disagree: each version, with the date it gives
- 2002
- January 2002
From the books
Elie Hobeika is killed by a car bomb near Beirut.
The former Lebanese Forces intelligence chief, widely held responsible for Sabra and Shatila and a minister after the war, died shortly before he was to testify in the Belgian case against Ariel Sharon.
In the list of 2002 ›- February 2002
From the books
Assaad Shaftari's war confessions appear in al-Hayat.
In three interviews with Hazim al-Amin, Hobeika's former aide described his militia years, including orders to execute captives, and called for the truth to be told so that the next generation might forgive.
In the list of 2002 ›- March 2002
From the books
Israel threatens to strike Syria over its support for Hezbollah.
On 14 April, two weeks after that threat, Ariel Sharon charged Syria and Iran with supporting Hezbollah's attacks.
In the list of 2002 ›- April 2002
From the books
The government announces Syrian troop withdrawals from parts of Mount Lebanon.
The move was presented as an application of the Taif Agreement.
In the list of 2002 ›From the books
Iran's foreign minister urges Hezbollah not to provoke a war.
In the list of 2002 ›- May 2002
From the books
On Liberation Day Nasrallah declares Hezbollah's support for the Palestinian intifada.
In the list of 2002 ›- August 2002
From the books
Sharon calls a Lebanese water pump on the Wazzani a cause for war.
A war over the Council of the South's plan to supply some fifty villages from the Wazzani, a Hasbani tributary, was averted by American, Russian and European mediation.
In the list of 2002 ›- November 2002
From the books
Before-and-after photographs of downtown go on show in Place de l'Étoile.
Haugbolle calls the book version, 'Beirut's Memory', propaganda: a Solidere-linked bank published it in the name of Hariri's photographer Ayman Traoui. On site, paired 1990 and 2002 views ringed the clock tower.
In the list of 2002 ›- December 2002
From the books
Rustom Ghazaleh replaces Ghazi Kanaan as Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon.
Kanaan had ruled from Anjar since 1982, vetting candidates and shaping the 2000 electoral map; his recall signalled Bashar al-Assad's tighter grip on Lebanon. Ghazaleh, his replacement, was implicated in Al-Madina bank's 2003 collapse.
In the list of 2002 ›- 2003
- February 2003
From the books
Israel bombs the south and reinforces its positions at Shebaa.
In the list of 2003 ›- April 2003
From the books
A replica of the 1975 bus becomes a memory installation in Beirut.
Hassan Saouli deliberately kept graphic images out: to mark 28 years since 13 April, he parked a bus of the 1975 model on a central Beirut street, with videos and texts on guilt and forgiveness inside.
In the list of 2003 ›From the books
'Remember, so as not to return': a campaign for a national day of memory.
In al-Safir leading politicians openly backed remembering the war for the first time. On 13 April hundreds gathered in Martyrs' Square, handing out flowers and collecting signatures for a national memory day and a memorial; earlier, the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir and the families' Committee had screened war documentaries unseen in Lebanon at Masrah al-Medina.
Art and memoryIn the list of 2003 ›- place Architect Mona El-Hallak came upon the Barakat building, above the old demarcation line at Sodeco, in 1996, and from 1997 led APSAD's campaign to save it. In 2003 the municipality expropriated it for $3 million for Beit Beirut.
- film Films Haugbolle cites on postwar amnesia include Ghassan Salhab's Beyrouth Fantôme (1999) and Terra Incognita (2002); the novel Ya Salam (1999) by Najwa Barakat follows former militiamen in peacetime.
- May 2003
From the books
Ghassan Tueni answers a Syrian general's threats against the Lebanese.
In al-Nahar Ghassan Tueni addressed Bashar al-Assad as an equal, protesting at threats against the Lebanese by General Bahjat Sleiman, Syria's intelligence chief.
In the list of 2003 ›- June 2003
From the books
A Kataeb memorial in Ashrafieh is pulled down for luxury flats.
A 1986 site for local fighters, it had lost its point once many of their families left in 1989-90, the mukhtar said.
In the list of 2003 ›From the books
Nada Sahnaoui's installation 'Atadhakkar' (I remember) opens in Martyrs' Square.
Sahnaoui set readers' memories of prewar downtown on 360 newspaper stacks, leaving a few stacks bare for what had been erased.
Art and memoryIn the list of 2003 ›- artwork Nada Sahnaoui's earlier work 'Statistics' listed war casualty figures from the press; Haugbolle's note points to 111101's Artworks section.
- September 2003
From the books
Soldiers fire on Hezbollah members in a poster fight at Jiba.
In Jiba, Hezbollah members objected to Amal's pictures of Imam Musa Sadr; in the ensuing brawl the army fired on Hezbollah, a first in over ten years: one dead, two wounded.
In the list of 2003 ›From the books
A by-election sets off a poster war in Gemmayzeh.
In Jummayza's September 2003 by-election, posters of Aoun's Hikmat Dib, the jailed Geagea and Bashir Gemayel were torn or mocked daily: Christian memory, divided.
In the list of 2003 ›- October 2003
From the books
Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions at Shebaa; Israel raids near villages.
In the list of 2003 ›- November 2003
From the books
A public hearing on 'understanding the war' turns into a shouting match.
Two women broke into the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir's hearing for students and war witnesses: one abused Samir Kassir for attacking Syria; a mother blamed a former Kataeb editor for her son's killing.
In the list of 2003 ›- December 2003
From the books
The US Congress passes the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.
It demanded a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and allowed for sanctions, partly applied from spring 2004.
In the list of 2003 ›- 2004
From the books
The bullet-scarred Martyrs' statue returns to downtown Beirut.
Issam Khairallah, who restored the statue at Kaslik's Holy Spirit University, kept almost half its bullet and shrapnel marks and left the young man's arm missing. It was put back about a hundred metres north, nearer the sea.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
UMAM Documentation and Research starts collecting the war's archives.
Founded by Lokman Slim and Monika Borgmann in Haret Hreik, it built an archive of war memories; their film 'Massaker', interviewing six men who took part in Sabra and Shatila, was shot between 2001 and 2004.
In the list of 2004 ›- January 2004
From the books
Lebanese prisoners freed from Israeli jails return in a Hezbollah exchange.
Hezbollah ran the welcome alone and barred leftist parties, though thirty of the fifty men who came home were leftists; the left replied by recalling its role in the resistance from 1982.
In the list of 2004 ›- February 2004
From the books
Reformist communists announce a 'Democratic Left' movement.
Its founding al-Nahar statement urged the left to reform and unite against the Syrian-backed order, calling it a duty to learn from past mistakes. Members included Elias Khoury, Samir Kassir, Ziad Majed, George Hawi and Elias Atallah.
In the list of 2004 ›- March 2004
From the books
Student demonstrations against the Syrian presence are suppressed.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Hezbollah attacks six Israeli positions after the killing of Sheikh Yassin.
In the list of 2004 ›- April 2004
From the books
A press campaign reveals how little the young know of the war.
Al-Nahar marked the April 2004 anniversary with interviews of ex-militiamen and a feature on the young: most said they knew only bits of the war, and that parents blamed 'the others'.
In the list of 2004 ›- August 2004
From the books
Hariri is called to Damascus, where Bashar al-Assad insists that Lahoud's term be extended.
Hariri had come to plead against prolonging Lahoud's term. Walid Jumblatt, interviewed by Nicholas Blanford in 2005, related that Assad told Hariri that Lahoud and Assad were one and the same.
In the list of 2004 ›- September 2004
From the books
Riots shake Majdel Anjar after the arrest of an Islamist leader.
Rioting broke out in the Sunni Bekaa town the day after a presumed al-Qaeda-linked Islamist leader was detained in Beirut.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
UN Security Council Resolution 1559 demands the withdrawal of foreign forces.
The Franco-American resolution, passed by nine votes with six abstentions, required every foreign force to leave, every militia to disarm and the presidential election to proceed free of outside interference. Walid Jumblatt sided with the opposition, most of it Christian.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Parliament extends President Lahoud's term by three years.
Under Syrian pressure the constitutional amendment passed by 96 votes to 29; Jumblatt's deputies voted against.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Hassan Nasrallah rejects Resolution 1559.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Four ministers, including Marwan Hamadeh, resign in protest.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Hariri announces that his government will resign.
In the list of 2004 ›- October 2004
From the books
Marwan Hamadeh survives a car bomb.
The car bomb that wounded Marwan Hamadeh, a Jumblatt adviser who had resigned from the cabinet, opened a series of attacks on opponents of Syria (Picard); the Special Tribunal for Lebanon later took on his case as legally linked to Hariri's. Kofi Annan's report on Resolution 1559 came out that day.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Hariri hands his resignation to Lahoud.
Hariri took the 1 October attack that wounded Marwan Hamadeh as a breach of the assurances he had been given, and resigned two days later. Lahoud waited more than two weeks before accepting.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Lebanon rejects the UN report criticising the Syrian presence.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
Bashar al-Assad derides the charge that Syria invaded Lebanon in 1976.
Assad asked Lebanon's Christians, and Resolution 1559's sponsors, the US and France, where they were when Lebanese were massacred. Haugbolle reads him as calling the war internal and Syria its rescuer.
In the list of 2004 ›From the books
The Democratic Left Movement is formally founded.
By December it had joined Christian and Druze parties in signing the Bristol Declaration.
In the list of 2004 ›
End of the chronology.