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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

1992, 2003, 2007, 2012

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46 entries on 41 dates · the books disagree on 12

January 1992

January 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

A budget with huge borrowing needs sets off a run on the Lebanese pound.
The run on the pound outlasted the budget's withdrawal; it planned borrowing of half of GDP.

After the war · From the books

Syria's vice-president Khaddam comes to arbitrate the 'troika'.
In January 1992 Vice-President Khaddam came to Beirut to explain how Taif should regulate the troika of president, prime minister and speaker: the first of many Syrian arbitrations, mostly his.

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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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May 1992

Wednesday, 6 May 1992

After the war · From the books

A general strike against the cost of living brings down the Karami government.
Karami resigned after the 6 May general strike paralysed the country and rioters, often anti-Syrian in tone, attacked the prime minister's office and property of leading figures. Rashid Solh's cabinet, formed in Damascus, called elections.

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June 1992

Wednesday, 17 June 1992

After the war · From the books

The last two Western hostages are freed.
Two Germans, the last Western hostages held in Lebanon, were released.

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July 1992

Thursday, 16 July 1992

After the war · From the books

Parliament passes a new electoral law for 128 deputies.
Mixing large and small constituencies, the law set 128 seats, not Taif's 108; Hanf sees Syria's allies as the gainers. Albert Moukheiber called it 'imported and imposed'.

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Thursday, 23 July 1992

After the war · From the books

A general strike against the elections; the main Christian forces call a boycott.
The 23 July strike against the elections held where Syrian troops were absent. The Patriarch and his synod led opponents, wanting no vote until the displaced returned and the occupation ended; the Kataeb, LF, NLP, National Bloc and some Muslim figures joined.

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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).

After the war · From the books

Army commander Emile Lahoud deploys troops to take back public property held by wartime militias.
Protests by Druze clerics and civilians, organised by Walid Jumblatt, blocked the army in the Chouf; the government gave way and left Beiteddine palace in his hands.

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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.

\_this day in full

September 1992

September 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

The Taif deadline for Syrian redeployment passes without a withdrawal.
In September 1992 Lebanese pressing for the partial Syrian pullback that Taif tied to a two-year deadline after the constitutional reforms were told the reforms, deconfessionalisation first, remained unfinished.

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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.

\_this day in full

October 1992: day not established

After the war · From the books

Kisrawan has to vote again for lack of candidates.
Kisrawan's October by-election turnout was 20.9 percent, against 57 percent in 1972; the government had found one candidate for its five seats.

\_this day in full

November 1992

Tuesday, 10 November 1992

After the war · From the books

Speaker Berri hopes to see confessional elections end with this parliament.
Hezbollah took up the call to abolish political confessionalism, which Syria then tied to any future withdrawal of its troops.

\_this day in full \_on this day

Thursday, 26 November 1992

After the war · From the books

Hariri wins a vote of confidence but not the powers he wanted.
Deputies refused him temporary decree powers and an end to civil servants' immunity, which Hanf deems vital to reforming the administration.

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December 1992

Tuesday, 8 December 1992

After the war · From the books

Syrian withdrawal is made conditional on ending confessionalism.
On 8 December Hrawi declared that deconfessionalisation would rest on consensus, Taif and the Constitution. Khaddam tied any partial Syrian withdrawal to ending confessionalism, and a Damascus summit's communiqué left withdrawal out.

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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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February 2003

Friday, 28 February 2003

After the war · From the books

Israel bombs the south and reinforces its positions at Shebaa.

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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

\_this day in full \_on this day

April 2003: day not established

After the war · 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.

\_this day in full

May 2003

Tuesday, 27 May 2003

After the war · 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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

After the war · 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.

\_this day in full

September 2003

September 2003: day not established

After the war · 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.

After the war · 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.

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October 2003

Monday, 27 October 2003

After the war · From the books

Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions at Shebaa; Israel raids near villages.

\_this day in full \_on this day

November 2003

November 2003: day not established

After the war · 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.

\_this day in full

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).

\_this day in full

January 2007

January 2007: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

An opposition general strike turns into Sunni-Shiite clashes.
Sunnis and Shiites clashed in Beirut's Muslim quarters during the strike, and many feared a new civil war.

Since 2005 · From the books

Paris III conference pledges 7.6 billion dollars to Siniora's government.
With the opposition sit-in under way in Beirut, Paris III donors pledged Siniora's government 7.6 billion dollars.

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February 2007

Saturday, 10 February 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

Compulsory military service ends.
Quéméner notes that ending conscription, once binding on citizens of every faith, left only the sectarian allocation of officer posts.

Sources differ: Quéméner dates conscription's end to 10 February 2007, Picard to January 2005; perhaps one marks the law, the other its application.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 2007: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

Bus passengers are killed in bombings at Ain Alaq.
Picard cites the bus bombing to show that ordinary people, not just public figures, were among the victims.

\_this day in full

April 2007

Friday, 13 April 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

The Ain al-Rummaneh bus is shown at the war's anniversary.
For the anniversary of the war's outbreak, visitors to the Beirut hippodrome could see the wreck of the Fargo Dodge bus in which 27 people died on 13 April 1975; it was exhibited again in 2011, at the Hangar in the southern suburbs.

Art and memory

film Ziad Doueiri's West Beirut (1998) popularised the Ain al-Rummaneh bus. In Philippe Aractingi's Bosta (2005) a bus touring Lebanon with music and dance quietly recalls it, recasting the symbol of the 1975 rupture as one of reconciliation.

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May 2007

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Since 2005 · From the books range

Battle of Nahr al-Bared between the army and Fatah al-Islam (20 May - 2 September).
Soldiers asleep at an army post by the camp entrance were killed when Fatah al-Islam fighters overran it; the army had been trying to detain members of the group over a Tripoli bank robbery. It then besieged and bombarded the camp for over three months, and 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinian refugees fled.

Sources differ: Soldiers killed: 179 (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 170 (Picard). Total dead: about 400 (Quéméner), consistent with 179 + 226 = 405.

\_this day in full \_on this day

Wednesday, 30 May 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

UN Resolution 1757 establishes the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The tribunal, charged with identifying and trying those behind the attack on Hariri, came into force under an accord the Siniora government signed in June 2007.

\_this day in full \_on this day

June 2007

Wednesday, 13 June 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

Future Movement MP Walid Eido is assassinated.
Walid Eido was one of a series of anti-Syrian deputies killed between 2005 and 2007.

\_this day in full \_on this day

August 2007

Thursday, 30 August 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

A banned play about the war, How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke, opens.
Culture Minister Tarek Mitri's intervention lifted an initial ban, and Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's play opened at Masrah al-Madina. Its multimedia staging set rival war narratives side by side.

Art and memory

artwork Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's multimedia play pitted rival accounts of the Lebanese role in the war against each other.

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 2007

Sunday, 2 September 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

The army takes control of Nahr al-Bared.
The army regained the camp after more than three months of fighting.

\_this day in full \_on this day

Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

Kataeb MP Antoine Ghanem is assassinated.
A car bomb killed him and several others.

Sources differ: 19 September (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 18 September (Quéméner).

\_this day in full \_on this day

late September 2007: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

Parliament's session to elect a president is adjourned.
Parliament's sitting to choose Lahoud's successor, called about a week after Antoine Ghanem's assassination, was adjourned; deadlock lasted until May 2008.

\_this day in full

November 2007

November 2007: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

Émile Lahoud's term ends with no successor: the presidency is vacant.
With the rival blocs deadlocked over who should succeed Lahoud, the presidency stayed empty until May 2008.

Sources differ: Picard starts the vacuum in September 2007, when the electoral sessions began to fail; the other books date it from November 2007, the end of Lahoud's term.

\_this day in full

December 2007

Wednesday, 12 December 2007

Since 2005 · From the books

General François al-Hajj is killed by a car bomb.
A Beirut car bomb killed General François al-Hajj, army chief of operations during the Nahr al-Bared siege and expected successor to Michel Sleiman as commander.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 2012

February 2012: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

Fighting in Tripoli between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen (February-December 2012).
From February to December, Tripoli's pro-regime Alawite quarter of Jabal Mohsen and its Sunni quarter of Bab al-Tebbaneh, which backed the Syrian opposition, clashed.

\_this day in full

June 2012

Monday, 11 June 2012

Since 2005 · From the books

The Baabda Declaration commits Lebanon to 'dissociation' from regional conflicts.
The declaration, agreed at President Sleiman's National Dialogue, pledged 'dissociation' from regional conflicts and border control, mainly towards Syria; Picard considers the promise empty from the outset.

\_this day in full \_on this day

October 2012

Friday, 19 October 2012

Since 2005 · From the books

Intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan is assassinated.
Seven people died along with Wissam al-Hassan, head of ISF intelligence and an investigator of Hariri's assassination, in a Beirut car bombing.

\_this day in full \_on this day

2012

2012: day not established

Since 2005 · From the books

Former minister Michel Samaha is arrested.
Picard treats the arrest as evidence that Syrian-paid agents took part in the unrest after the 2005 withdrawal.

\_this day in full