111101 entry from the books the books disagree: each version, with the date it gives
1988
January 1988
From the books
Al-Mashreq, the country's second-largest bank, collapses.
Early in 1988 Al-Mashreq, the country's second-biggest bank, went bankrupt, throwing the banking system into a serious crisis. De Clerck links the bank's difficulties to the collapse, at the end of 1988, of the Kataeb financial network managed by Roger Tamraz.
A Progressive Socialist Party member hijacks a Lebanese Army helicopter. This affair triggers a maritime blockade imposed by the Army on the Chouf region.
In order to avoid the escalation, Joumblatt surrenders the 'Gazelle' to the Hammana barrack but the major insists on going back to Adma. Two days later, this crisis is forgotten and the maritime blockade is lifted up.
A 'Puma' crashes in the sea next to the Bouar coast with its captain Georges Sadaka on board and his co-pilot Jean Azzi. The search for the two bodies was unsuccessful.
Amal ended the blockade of the Palestinian camps it had kept up since 1985. Hanf gives two reasons: the West Bank intifada, which made Syria and Amal look like Israel's accomplices if they kept squeezing the camps, and Amal's coming fight with Hezbollah.
The camps war, that lasted three years, seems to come close to an end with the deployment of the Syrian army and the Lebanese Army sixth brigade, replacing Amal around Chatila and Bourj-Brajneh.
What the books addHanf (p. 315) dates the lifting of Amal's blockade of the camps to 18 January 1988. The sources disagree on when the war of the camps ended: September 1987 (Picard's chronology), January 1988 (Picard, Hanf, de Clerck) or late 1988 (Hanf, p. 304).
The institute 'Etudes et Consultations Economiques' publishes the results of its annual analysis of the price increase in Beirut. They show an increase of 721% during the year 1987.
What the books addAccording to de Clerck and Malsagne (pp. 204-205), inflation peaked in 1987: the pound was devalued by 485% and Beirut consumer prices went up 450%.
While hail falls on most of the country causing important damages, police patrols go round bakeries that are reducing the 2 kilos 'rabta' of bread, sold regularly at 65 LBP., to 1700grs.
The fall of the dollar (400 LBP.) on the market (it had reached 430 LBP.) allows the Minister of Industry and Oil to reduce the price of oil from 1400 LBP. to 1200 LBP. and the ton of fuel from 69,200 LBP. to 52,000 LBP.
The emissary of President Amine Gemayel, Elie Salem, meets with the Secretary of State George Schultz in Washington in the presence of the Sub-Secretary for the Middle East Affairs, Richard Murphy.
US Colonel William Higgins, of the UN truce supervisors, is kidnapped near Tyre.
William Higgins, an American lieutenant-colonel with the UN Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO), was abducted at Tyre. He was accused of making the south a 'buffer zone serving Israel'. Amal held Hezbollah responsible, one of the grievances behind their war. A film of his hanging in captivity was circulated on 31 July 1989.
Brief fighting on the upper Metn front between the SSNP and the army.
Sunni soldiers from Akkar were among the army troops defending the Christian heartland on the upper Metn line when SSNP militiamen, mostly Christians from the same region, some from the same villages, attacked under Syrian artillery cover. The fighting stopped abruptly once they realised it.
The Ivory Coast decides to close its embassy in Beirut fearing that a negative action against its diplomats could cause repercussions on the Lebanese that live in the Ivory Coast.
The first animated cartoons festival in Lebanon is inaugurated at the S.E.P in presence of several personalities as well as cartoonists who came from France.
Amal launched an offensive to disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Brief fighting, notably at Nabatiyeh and Ghaziyeh, went Amal's way, and armed Hezbollah fighters vanished from view there. A three-phase 'war of brothers' had begun, lasting until November 1990.
Following combats between Amal and Hezbollah, Nabatiyeh falls in the hands of Amal militiamen.
What the books addThe books date the start of the Amal-Hezbollah fighting in the south to 5 April 1988 (de Clerck); Picard's chronology gives 28 November 1988, which seems to describe the later round in Beirut.
The body of Bishop Albert Khoreiche was discovered in the forest of Chnaiir, provoking consternation in every milieu. He had disappeared eight days earlier in mysterious conditions.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne (p. 420) identify the victim as head of the Maronite religious court and nephew of the former Patriarch Khoreiche. His body was discovered in a Ghazir forest on 1 May 1988, and the killing was attributed to the Lebanese Forces.
Fatah and Abu Musa's dissidents fight for the Beirut camps.
Abu Musa's Syrian-backed Palestinians attacked Arafat's loyalists in Chatila and Bourj al-Barajneh once Amal had turned on Hezbollah; for about two months Palestinians fought in the camps while Shi'is fought in the suburbs. Bourj al-Barajneh's 17,000 people of 30 April, before the fighting, were 2,500 by summer.
The affair of the three last French hostages has a happy ending. Marcel Fontaine, Marcel Carton and Jean-Paul Kauffman, detained for three years by the Islamic Jihad, are finally released. Michel Seurat, dead one year after he was made captive, wasn't as lucky.
What the books addJean-Charles Marchiani, the secret negotiator, later confirmed a Franco-Iranian bargain, suspected when the hostages were freed four days before the presidential run-off (de Clerck and Malsagne, p. 411).
Art and memory
testimony Jean-Paul Kauffmann wrote at length of his three years in captivity in L'Evenement du Jeudi (12-18 May 1988); Fisk judges it the most harrowing account by any Beirut hostage.
Amal and Hezbollah begin fighting for the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Beirut's southern suburbs became the scene of the second, deadlier round of the Amal-Hezbollah war. Hezbollah took most of the suburbs in about two weeks, after which Syrian troops entered to protect Amal; Quéméner counts 600 dead.
Iran and Syria sponsored a seven-point agreement destined to consolidate the end of combats in the southern suburbs that made, in 6 days, 157 death and 666 injured. The agreement was revised a few days later.
What the books addThe suburb fighting began on 6 May 1988 (de Clerck). The sources disagree on who attacked first: Hezbollah with Iranian support (Hanf) or Amal (de Clerck and Malsagne, Confluences). Quéméner puts the toll at 600 dead over two weeks.
The Generals Ghazi Kanaan and Said Bayraqdar, respectively chief of S.S and Commander of the Syrian Forces in Lebanon, barely escape an attack in Ghobayre.
What the books addHanf (p. 317, note 221) describes a Hezbollah anti-tank attack on an armoured car carrying four senior Syrian officers, without casualties, in connection with the Syrian entry into the suburbs.
What the books addHanf (p. 317) dates the Syrian entry into the southern suburbs to 17 May 1988; de Clerck and Malsagne write 19 May (with the year printed as 1989). Neither gives 27 May.
2,200 tons of toxic waste were illegally brought in Lebanon and kept on waste grounds in the Kesrouan, after being rejected by Italy, Syria and Venezuela.
What the books addDe Clerck (p. 350) places the traffic in 1987 and implicates the Lebanese Forces. Its figures, from Greenpeace: 15,800 barrels and 20 containers from Italy, of which 5,500 barrels went back in 1988-1989; the rest was burned, dumped or buried, partly in the Kesrouan mountains.
