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chronologiesallThe road to war 1968–1974 The Lebanese war 1975–1990 After the war 1991–2005 July 2006, as the books tell it 2006 Since 2005 2005–2025

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February 1992

Saturday, 29 February 1992

After the war · From the books

The Central Bank gives up defending the pound.
By early May a dollar cost 2,000 pounds; the bank had given up on the pound after losing a third of its foreign reserves.

Sources differ: Peak rate: 2,000 (Hanf, early May) or 2,200 (Picard, 1992).

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July 1992

July 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

Hundreds of Aoun supporters are arrested for distributing leaflets.
Leaflets urging 'real independence' or a boycott led military police to detain young Aounists; some faced military courts. Amnesty International counted about 200 arrests by December 1992, citing ill-treatment.

Sources differ: More than 120 (Picard) or about 200 (Amnesty, via Hanf).

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August 1992

summer (no day in the books) August 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

First parliamentary elections since 1972, boycotted by most Christians.
In Baalbek-Hermel Hezbollah's list defeated the speaker's, and with Amal it took the Shiite seats. Few voted: about 10 percent in Beirut and 6.5 percent in Jbeil, where one deputy won with 41 votes. The major Christian currents had no seats.

Sources differ: Turnout: under 20 percent (Hanf, provisional official) or 30 percent (Picard). Hezbollah seats: Hanf counts a faction of fourteen, Picard nine deputies.

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October 1992

late October 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

Rafiq Hariri becomes prime minister.
Hariri, a billionaire contractor and not a deputy, formed a cabinet of business people and technocrats in late October, centred on reconstruction. Within two weeks the dollar fell from 2,200 to 1,900 pounds. Berri became speaker that month; Jumblatt minister for the displaced.

Sources differ: Hanf's text prints 1982 for 1992, an obvious misprint.

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1992

1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

Demolitions begin in downtown Beirut for the reconstruction company.
From 1992 Solidere blew up shell-damaged central Beirut: part of the medieval wall, the gold souk ruins, Ottoman façades. Its 'tabula rasa' angered press and universities.

Sources differ: Picard dates the founding of Solidere to 1993 (next entry), after the demolitions Fisk describes in 1992.

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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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April 2003

Sunday, 13 April 2003

After the war · 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 memory

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.

Other date in the books: Tuesday, 8 April 2003

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June 2003

June 2003: day not established

After the war · 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.

Sources differ: Opening in June 2003 (p. 132); the photograph is dated July 2003.

Art and memory

artwork Nada Sahnaoui's earlier work 'Statistics' listed war casualty figures from the press; Haugbolle's note points to 111101's Artworks section.

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December 2003

December 2003: day not established

After the war · 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.

Sources differ: Passed in November (Haugbolle) or December 2003 (Picard, 33 jours); sanctions from April (Picard) or May 2004 (33 jours).

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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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