401 news for February, June, September, November
with the books\_this day in full the books also date it 10 February 1989 \_on this day
\_what the books add
De Clerck and Malsagne date the first army-LF clash to 14 February: after 18 hours of fighting the army had the upper hand. Hanf dates the start to 10 February.
\_this day in full the books also date it 17 February 1989 \_on this day
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De Clerck and Malsagne have a truce under the Maronite Patriarch's patronage from 17 February. Hanf says Aoun accepted a ceasefire once the militia agreed to hand over Dock Five of the port and the Bourbara checkpoint.
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Hanf reports that within a week the dollar dropped from LL502 to LL450 and that state customs income rose quickly, though the Lebanese Forces honoured their February 1989 undertaking only in part. The army received Dock Five, the country's main customs post, and the Barbara checkpoint (Hanf spells it 'Bourbara').
\_this day in full the books also date it 23 May 1989 \_on this day
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The committee was set up at the Arab summit in Casablanca, which opened on 23 May 1989 (Hanf).
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 November 1989 \_on this day
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According to Hanf and Fisk, the embassy closed after demonstrations by Aoun's supporters. A first youth protest at the embassy, against Western 'silence', took place in April 1989.
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Hanf says Kadri had lobbied deputies to press for Syria's withdrawal from the Bekaa before Taif. He groups the killing with those of Bashir Gemayel, Kamal Jumblatt, Hassan Khaled and Mohammed Shukair, all of which, in his view, plainly benefited Syria.
\_this day in full the books also date it 13 September 1989, 23 September 1989 \_on this day
\_what the books add
The dates differ: Picard ends the 'war of liberation' on 22 September; de Clerck and Malsagne say the ceasefire took effect on 23 September. Hanf dates the troika's new plan to 13 September (de Clerck and Malsagne say 17 September). Aoun accepted it, urging the deputies to insist on a timetable for Syrian withdrawal.
\_this day in full the books also date it 13 September 1989, 30 September 1989 \_on this day
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The meeting date of 30 September was already part of the troika's 13 September proposals (Hanf). De Clerck and Malsagne say 63 of the 73 surviving deputies gathered in Taif on 30 September. Hanf dates the formal opening to 1 October.
\_this day in full the books also date it 22 October 1989 \_on this day
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Hanf dates Aoun's dissolution, by Decree 420, to 4 November, with elections set for January 1990; Traboulsi places it in September 1989. Raymond Eddé held the decree constitutional; Georges Vedel, the French jurist consulted by Speaker Husseini, found that an interim government could not dissolve parliament.
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On 5 November, Hanf says, 58 deputies met at the Qlayaat air base, seven kilometres from the Syrian border, 25 of them flown from Paris on Rafic Hariri's private plane. They returned Hussein Husseini as speaker, voted on Taif and chose René Moawad as president: 35 votes on the first ballot, 52 with 6 abstentions on the second. That evening demonstrators broke into the Bkerke patriarchate and made Patriarch Sfeir kiss a portrait of Aoun.
\_this day in full the books also date it 5 November 1989 \_on this day
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Aoun, Hanf writes, warned that any Christian deputy joining a Moawad-Hoss government would lose the right to live in the 'free areas'. When bombs hit the homes of many Christian deputies after the election, his condemnation was half-hearted: he voiced 'understanding for the anger of the people'.
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Moawad had been president for seventeen days. Hanf puts the dead at fourteen, including the president; de Clerck and Malsagne say he died with 23 other people. Fisk describes a remote-controlled charge of 250 kg of explosives concealed in a disused shop, and watched bulldozers clear the rubble within hours.
\_this day in full the books also date it 22 November 1989 \_on this day
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Hanf: Elias Hrawi, the only candidate, won on the second ballot with 47 votes of the 53 deputies present, 5 abstaining, under Syrian protection; at the same sitting parliament gave itself four more years. Speaker Husseini had gone to Damascus on the night of 22 November. Traboulsi's chronology places the election on 22 November.
\_this day in full the books also date it 24 November 1989 \_on this day
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Hanf sees the cabinet as falling short of Taif's national unity government, since Michel Sassine stayed in Paris and Kataeb leader Georges Saadé wavered.
\_this day in full the books also date it 25 November 1989 \_on this day
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The crowds began gathering at Baabda as soon as Hrawi gave Aoun his ultimatum, according to Hanf the day after the election. The sit-in lasted weeks. Fisk saw the Syrian army move hundreds of tanks and guns into the mountains above Beirut in early December. Emile Lahoud was named army commander on 28 November (de Clerck and Malsagne).
French opposition deputies go to Baabda to express their solidarity.
The army takes control of Dbayeh after a tough battle.
\_this day in full the books also date it 6 February 1990 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf: the army's counter-offensive of 6 February 1990 reached the coast near Antelias and took Dbayeh, home to Lebanese Forces barracks and the militia's finance department.
\_this day in full the books also date it 31 January 1990 \_on this day
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Totals for the whole army-Lebanese Forces war differ. De Clerck and Malsagne count over 1,500 victims, fighters and civilians, and say the first three weeks claimed more than the six months of the 1989 war against Syria; the army alone lost 21 officers and 221 soldiers, about 100,000 people moved elsewhere in Lebanon and close to 200,000 went abroad. Hanf estimates about 1,000 dead and 3,500 wounded; Picard 1,000 dead and 3,000 wounded for January-July; Fisk 'well over a thousand' dead in Beirut from end January to end May.
\_this day in full the books also date it 10 February 1990 \_on this day
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Colonel Paul Fares declared himself head of a 'neutral army' on 10 February 1990, as a Lebanese Forces push on the army's Kleiat mountain position stalled (Hanf).
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 February 1990, 16 February 1990 \_on this day
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Hanf: after the army took Ain al-Rummaneh on 16 February 1990, having attacked the eastern suburbs on the 11th, the Lebanese Forces fell back to Ashrafieh through West Beirut. A Reuters reporter with the troops said it was 'like an earthquake had hit it'.
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Aoun lost almost all his helicopters when the Lebanese Forces, as a diversion, besieged the Adma base in Kisrawan; the outnumbered commandos held out until a deal let them leave armed (Hanf).
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 July 1990 \_on this day
\_this day in full the books also date it 28 September 1990 \_on this day
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Hanf notes the blockade had little support even outside the enclave, as civilians rather than Aoun's soldiers bore it. On 28 September 1990, he records, Lahoud's troops tightened it by taking every checkpoint around Aoun's area; Aoun's followers protested daily there and at Baabda.
\_this day in full the books also date it 6 November 1990, 9 November 1990 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Sources differ on dates. Picard has Damascus and Tehran imposing an Amal–Hezbollah ceasefire on 6 November 1990; de Clerck and Malsagne date the inter-Shi'i accord signed in Damascus to 9 November and, with Aoun's fall, treat it as formally ending the 'civil' war. Hanf says both movements withdrew their fighters from Iqlim al-Tuffah after drawn-out Syrian and Iranian mediation. That final round began in December 1989 (de Clerck and Malsagne, Confluences) or, in Hezbollah's official version, in July 1990, with an Amal siege of nearly 100 days.
\_this day in full the books also date it 17 November 1990 \_on this day
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Hanf: the militias were ordered out of Beirut on 17 November 1990, as army units deployed across the capital under a security plan cleared in advance with Syria. Amal (to the south) and the PSP (to the Chouf) left at once, Hezbollah three days later. The Lebanese Forces first set conditions; their pull-out, opened by a military parade on 23 November, ended by 3 December.