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24 entries on 24 dates · the books disagree on 24

January 1987

Wednesday, 28 January 1987

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

Assad and Gemayel met for 55 minutes in Kuwait during a pan-Islamic conference to put an end to a disagreement that lasted one year. Besides, Washington decided to prohibit US nationals from travelling to Lebanon.

What the books addTraboulsi dates the break between the two presidents to their meeting of 13-14 January 1986, when Gemayel rejected the Syrian-sponsored Tripartite Accord.

Other date in the books: Monday, 13 January 1986

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February 1987

Tuesday, 17 February 1987

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The Communist thinker Hussein Mroue is assassinated.
Hussein Mroue, a prominent Marxist thinker of the Lebanese Communist Party, was murdered, one of several party officials and intellectuals killed in 1986-87 amid the rift between Hezbollah and the Communists.

Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne link the killings to the break between Hezbollah and the Communist Party; Hanf attributes the murders of Communist intellectuals in early 1987 to Amal supporters. Neither names the killers of Mroue specifically.

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Sunday, 22 February 1987

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The Syrian army returns to West Beirut.
Much of the population welcomed the Syrian troops who entered West Beirut at Muslim leaders' invitation after a week of fighting between Amal and the PSP and its leftist allies. Militiamen were banned from carrying arms in the streets; Amal fell back to the southern suburbs, which the Syrians left alone. Gemayel protested.

Sources differ: Date: 22 February (Hanf; de Clerck and Malsagne, twice), 20 February (Picard), 28 February (Traboulsi). 22 February has the most support and is also the date given in original entry 988. Size of force: two brigades (Hanf), 12,000 soldiers plus Special Forces (de Clerck and Malsagne), 8,000 (Quéméner).

Other dates in the books: Friday, 20 February 1987, Saturday, 28 February 1987

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February 1987: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Syrian troops kill some twenty Hezbollah members in Beirut.
About twenty Hezbollah fighters were killed when Syrian troops enforcing the arms ban stormed a Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut. Fisk wrote that month of killings of prisoners held by Syria in Beirut.

Sources differ: Hanf places the killing of 23 Hezbollah fighters right after the Syrian entry of 22 February, and Fisk writes of Syrian killings of prisoners in Beirut in February 1987; de Clerck and Malsagne date the storming of Hezbollah's headquarters and the killing of about twenty members to the end of 1987. The Confluences article is by the same two authors, so it is not independent confirmation. February has the better support.

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March 1987

Saturday, 28 March 1987

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

An anti-Syrian assault in Ramlet El Baida constituted the most serious incident since the entry of Syrian troops in West Beirut on February 22nd.

What the books addHanf writes that in June 1987 Walid Jumblatt was forced to surrender to Syria several men of the PSP intelligence branch, his security chief among them, who had joined in hit-and-run attacks on Syrian forces in West Beirut.

Other date in the books: Sunday, 22 February 1987

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April 1987

Sunday, 5 April 1987

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

An agreement was concluded between the National Palestinian Salvation Front and the Amal movement under the aegis of Ghazi Kanaan. This agreement stipulated a global cease-fire and the end of the camps' blockade in Beirut

What the books addUnder the 5 April accord, reached by Amal, the PLO and the pro-Syrian Palestinian National Salvation Front with the Syrian general Ghazi Kanaan present, the blockade was to be lifted, the wounded taken out and the PLO was to leave three villages near Sidon. Food and medicine then reached Chatila and Bourj al-Barajneh, the first since March. Picard dates the end of the siege to an Amal-Palestinian agreement of 11 September 1987; Hanf has Amal lifting the blockade only on 18 January 1988.

Other dates in the books: Friday, 11 September 1987, Monday, 18 January 1988

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April 1987: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Clerics propose an Islamic republic for Lebanon, with a draft constitution.
Amal's leaders distanced themselves from an Iranian-style draft constitution by Iranian and Lebanese clerics: all laws to follow Islamic law, an all-Shi'i council to design the new order, autonomy for minorities where they were the majority.

Sources differ: Hanf's footnote 220 dates the same Hottinger article to 6 May 1987, his bibliography to 6 April 1987.

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May 1987

Monday, 18 May 1987

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The Marxist thinker Mahdi Amel (Hassan Hamdan) is assassinated.
Hassan Hamdan, known as Mahdi Amel, a philosopher and leading theorist of the Lebanese Communist Party, was assassinated. Hanf says his Shi'i background made him especially hated, branded an 'atheist traitor'.

Sources differ: Responsibility: Hanf names Amal supporters; de Clerck and Malsagne place the killing in the context of the Hezbollah-Communist break without naming the killers.

Art and memory

book Hanf's annotated list of Arabic writing on the war includes Mahdi Amel's 1979 work on the causes of the civil war, Theory in Political Practice, and describes its author as a Shi'i philosophy professor and Communist Party member.

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June 1987

Friday, 5 June 1987

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

A general strike paralyses the country for five days.
A general strike, part of the CGTL's drive for peace and an economic rescue plan, shut the country down for close to five days.

Sources differ: Hanf lists CGTL political strikes in 1987 for April, July, August, September and November, but none in June. The strike began four days after Karami's assassination, on the day Husseini resigned (original entry 1003).

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September 1987

Friday, 11 September 1987

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Amal and the Palestinians agree to end the war of the camps.
Picard puts the end of the war of the camps on this day, with an Amal-Palestinian agreement. Other historians date the end of the siege differently: to a ceasefire on 5 April 1987, and to 18 January 1988, when Amal finally lifted the blockade after the Palestinian intifada had begun.

Sources differ: End of the camps war or siege: 5 April 1987 ceasefire (de Clerck and Malsagne; original entry 989), 11 September 1987 (Picard), 18 January 1988 (Hanf), January 1988 for Chatila (de Clerck and Malsagne, who date the war 1985-1987).

Other dates in the books: Sunday, 5 April 1987, Monday, 18 January 1988

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September 1987: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Amal and Hezbollah clash in the south.
Amal and Hezbollah fighters clashed in southern Lebanon, the two movements already at odds over Lebanon's future, recruitment and Iranian money. Their open war began in April 1988.

Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne date the start of the Amal-Hezbollah conflict to a Syrian assault on Hezbollah at the end of 1987, and its first phase to 5 April 1988.

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1987

1987: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The worst currency crisis since independence.
The Lebanese pound collapsed in 1987: worth about 35 to the dollar in 1986, it stood at some 520 in 1987, having lost up to 90 percent of its value. Inflation ran at 450 to 620 percent according to the measure used, and nearly one Lebanese in five was poor.

Sources differ: Inflation for 1987: 620 percent retail prices (Hanf) against 450 percent for the Beirut consumer price index (de Clerck and Malsagne); the two measure different things. The original entries 979, 1011, 1033 and 1038 give the daily stages (about LL 100 in February, 162 in July, near 500 in late October).

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December 2002

December 2002: day not established

After the war · 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.

Sources differ: Farewell ceremony 9 October 2002 versus replacement in December 2002.

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February 2005

Monday, 14 February 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated in Beirut.
Shortly after midday a huge bomb struck Rafic Hariri's convoy outside the Saint-Georges hotel on the Beirut seafront, killing him and others travelling with him. Lebanese politics then divided into two blocs, which took their names from the rallies of 8 and 14 March.

Sources differ: Death toll differs: 22 dead (de Clerck & Malsagne, p. 461 and p. 577); Hariri 'and eight companions' (Abirached, p. 243, although the same chronology's 7 April entry speaks of Hariri 'and twenty-two other persons'); 18 dead (Quéméner). The counts may cover different groups (convoy only, or all victims, including those who died later).

Art and memory

book Sune Haugbolle's War and Memory in Lebanon begins with the Hariri bombing of 14 February 2005, which he takes as the end of postwar Lebanon and which brought the war back to many Lebanese minds.

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Monday, 28 February 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Prime Minister Omar Karami resigns under pressure from the street.
Omar Karami's government resigned as demonstrations grew in downtown Beirut.

Sources differ: Two contributors to the same volume differ: Abirached's chronology dates Karami's resignation to 28 February, Khayat's chapter to 27 February. Abirached's dated chronology is the more precise of the two.

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March 2005

Tuesday, 8 March 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Hezbollah and Amal rally in central Beirut to thank Syria.
Hezbollah and Amal brought a huge crowd into central Beirut to thank Syria and to reject Western interference. Addressing it, Hassan Nasrallah credited Syria with keeping Lebanon stable and warned against foreign meddling. The pro-Syrian '8 March' camp took its name from the day.

Sources differ: Crowd size: about 800,000 (Abirached; Khayat) against 400,000 (Quéméner). De Clerck & Malsagne call it the first mass demonstration, whereas Khayat places it the day after the opposition's third Monday rally.

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May 2005

Saturday, 7 May 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

General Michel Aoun returns from fifteen years of exile in France.
Back in Beirut, the Free Patriotic Movement leader told supporters on Freedom Square that his fellow opposition leaders were sectarian. He later came to terms with Hezbollah and joined forces with one-time pro-Syrian politicians.

Sources differ: 7 May (Quéméner) or 8 May (Abirached). Each date has one source; the others give only 'May' or 'a few days after' the withdrawal.

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Sunday, 29 May 2005

Since 2005 · From the books range

Parliamentary elections over several weeks give the anti-Syrian coalition a majority.
Saad Hariri's anti-Syrian coalition won 72 of 128 seats and Michel Aoun's movement much of Mount Lebanon; with each region returning its own local leaders, the vote showed a country more divided by sect than ever.

Sources differ: The two chapters of the same book disagree on when voting ended: 12 June in Abirached's chronology, 19 June in Khayat's chapter. Picard dates the elections simply to May 2005.

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June 2005

Thursday, 2 June 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Journalist and historian Samir Kassir is killed by a car bomb.
Samir Kassir, academic, columnist and a leading voice against Syrian control, died when a bomb went off in his car. Haugbolle treats the killing as the moment post-Syrian Lebanon's disarray grew plain.

Sources differ: 2 June in four sources (de Clerck & Malsagne, Abirached, Quéméner, Khayat) against 1 June in Haugbolle. 2 June has the most support.

Art and memory

book De Clerck and Malsagne call Samir Kassir's 1994 study, which ends in 1982, a reference work; Kassir himself noted that no academic research yet covered the conflict in its full complexity.

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Thursday, 30 June 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Fouad Siniora is chosen as Prime Minister.
A parliament dominated by the 14 March parties chose Fouad Siniora, Rafic Hariri's trusted associate, as prime minister. Israel had retaliated, on a limited scale, for a major Hezbollah attack in the Shebaa Farms launched a few hours before the nomination.

Sources differ: Abirached's chronology has Siniora forming the government on 30 June; Khayat says only that he was designated at the end of June. For the government itself, de Clerck & Malsagne (Confluences) give 19 July (see the following entry).

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July 2005

Tuesday, 19 July 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Siniora's government takes office, with Hezbollah ministers for the first time.
Hezbollah ministers sat in a Lebanese cabinet for the first time, beside a majority from the former opposition. Siniora went on to head governments until November 2009.

Sources differ: Most sources say July (Confluences 19 July, Picard July); Abirached's chronology has 30 June, perhaps Siniora's designation, which the same book's narrative puts at the end of June.

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Tuesday, 26 July 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, is freed after eleven years in prison.
Released under an amnesty, the former militia leader officially re-founded the Lebanese Forces as a party; his wife told reporters the civil war was over.

Sources differ: 26 July (Abirached) and 'end of July' (Khayat) against 'June 2005' (de Clerck & Malsagne, p. 451-452). Haugbolle's source for the wife's words is al-Nahar of 18 July 2005, which may refer to the amnesty vote rather than the release.

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September 2005

Thursday, 1 September 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

Four security chiefs are arrested in the Hariri investigation.
Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guard and the three men who had headed the security services when Hariri was killed were arrested at the instance of the UN commission, aided by the Lebanese judiciary. Picard records that the four were held without evidence until April 2009.

Sources differ: 1 September (Abirached) against end of August (Khayat; Picard gives August). Two sources favour late August.

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October 2005

Monday, 31 October 2005

Since 2005 · From the books

UN Resolution 1636 orders Syria to cooperate with the investigation.
Under Chapter VII, the Council threatened Syria with sanctions unless it cooperated fully with the UN inquiry commission.

Sources differ: Picard has 31 October, Abirached 1 November; a late New York vote on the 31st would fall on the 1st in Beirut, but this is unchecked.

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