111101 entry from the books the books disagree: each version, with the date it gives
1987
From the books
Toxic waste from Italy is smuggled into Lebanon.
The Lebanese Forces took part in a 1987 traffic that brought toxic waste from Italy into Lebanon illegally: some 15,800 barrels and 20 containers. After the public outcry of 1988 only about 5,500 barrels were sent back; the rest was burned, dumped on the coast or at sea, or buried in the Kesrouan mountains.
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.
Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy, disappears in Beirut.
In January 1987 Terry Waite, who had negotiated for the Western hostages, was taken hostage himself. He had returned to Beirut without an invitation from Islamic Jihad and asked to meet it again; Fisk says he wanted to show he had no part in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair.
The Minister of Labor Selim El Hoss signed a decree raising the minimum wage to 3,200 LBP. This decision was a timid ray of light in the heavy economic sky.
What the books addHistorians describe the collapse of real wages behind such decrees: against 1974, the statutory minimum wage kept 13 percent of its buying power at the end of 1986 (Hanf, after Abou Rjaily and Labaki).
While the Camps War raged between Amal and the Popular Palestinian Liberation Front, the Salam mission, aiming at reconciling Presidents Assad and Gemayel, was resumed.
What the books addThe third 'war of the camps' had begun in the south at the end of September 1986; fighting resumed in the Beirut camps in December. By early January 1987 it had cost over 500 dead and 2,000 wounded, by a French diplomatic estimate. The books describe Amal's adversaries as PLO fighters, mostly loyal to Arafat.
The Cassir decrees caused a fast increase in the price of fuel. Starting this day, 20 liters of gas were sold at 190 LBP, while the jar of butane was sold at 100 LBP.
President Camille Chamoun escaped by miracle from a killing attempt. A car bomb exploded on the River cornice when his convoy was passing by. 4 persons were killed and 37 others were wounded. The President was injured in his arm.
What the books addHanf mentions the failed attempt on Chamoun's life early in 1987 and notes that he died in August of that year.
The kidnapping, in West Beirut, of Roger Auque, a French journalist, raised the number of French nationals who disappeared in Lebanon to 18.
What the books addCounts differ: Hanf, after Abou Rjaily and Labaki (figures to late 1987), counts about fifty foreigners kidnapped in Lebanon, including twenty Americans and nine Frenchmen. The figure of 18 French nationals may include people who were not kidnapped; its basis is not known.
While there were still no news about West German nationals Cordes and Schmidt, three Americans and one Indian holding a US passport were kidnapped at the Beirut University College campus, in Koraytem in Ras Beirut.
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.
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.
Gunmen loot the Commodore Hotel, the journalists' base in West Beirut, which closes.
Days after Druze and Palestinian gunmen looted the Commodore, taking its staff's money and passports, the owner, Yussef Nazzal, shut the hotel and laid off nearly all the employees.
The Communist Party's radio, Voice of the People, goes on air.
The Lebanese Communist Party started its own radio, the 'Voice of the People'. Like the militias' stations, it read out the dollar exchange rate at regular intervals.
The MEA suspended its flights therefore causing a de facto closing of the Beirut International Airport, while the few companies that were still flying into the airport (Soviet, Czech, and Bulgarian) decided to cancel their flights.
The Lebanese Pound recorded a historic decline compared to the dollar which had almost reached the 100 LBP threshold. This fall worried the population.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne call 1987's currency crisis the gravest since independence, the pound losing up to 90 percent of its value; on Banque du Liban figures (Hanf), it fell from about 35 to the dollar in 1986 to some 520.
The confrontations intensified around the Palestinian camps of Chatila and Bourj Brajneh. The risk of escalation intensified.
What the books addBy late 1986, say de Clerck and Malsagne, Chatila was 90 percent destroyed, yet 500 to 1,000 Palestinians held out inside. In the winter of 1987, Picard writes, many Palestinians in the besieged Beirut camps died of hunger.
While the Lebanese Pound continued to fall, the chief of State Amine Gemayel, arrived in Bruxelles to request a social and economic help from the European countries.
A vast military confrontation between Amal and the PSP erupted in West Beirut. It was a prelude to the entrance of 12,000 Syrian soldiers in this region. However, they didn't deploy in the Southern suburbs.
What the books addHanf has the PSP and its leftist allies overrunning Amal's Murr Tower headquarters and taking Hamra after five days of what he calls West Beirut's worst fighting, its destruction on the scale of the 1982 siege. The size of the Syrian force differs by source: 12,000 soldiers plus Special Forces (de Clerck and Malsagne), 8,000 (Quéméner), two brigades (Hanf), the re-formed 85th Brigade (Fisk). The troops entered on 22 February according to most sources (see addition 1987-02-22).
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.
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.
A decision that appeared anachronistic in a country dominated by insecurity was taken: motorcycles were prohibited in West Beirut. This decision was motivated by the need to strengthen security in the region.
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.
The cabinet meets for the first time in over a year, to face the economic crisis.
Little came of the Karami cabinet's meeting on the fast-worsening economy, its first since the Muslim ministers' boycott began in January 1986. Karami resigned weeks later.
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.
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.
What the books addHanf lists five increasingly political CGTL strikes in 1987 (April, July, August, September, November), mass protests against the war more than ordinary strikes.
Hanf observes that by then the old civil-war camps had almost stopped fighting each other: the Beirut demarcation line last saw combat in May 1987, and the wars of 1986-88 were waged within each camp.
The Prime Minister Rachid Karameh announced his resignation but refused to give a written resignation to the Head of State
What the books addBefore resigning, Karami had seen the cabinet reconvene in April to deal with the economic crisis, after months in which the Muslim ministers' boycott of Gemayel had kept it from meeting. Hanf treats his call to open the presidency to every community as the start of the contest for the 1988 presidential election.
