previous page 7 of 8 next
January 24, 1987saturday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 28, 1987wednesday
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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 13 January 1986 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Traboulsi dates the break between the two presidents to their meeting of 13-14 January 1986, when Gemayel rejected the Syrian-sponsored Tripartite Accord.
January 29, 1987thursday
Mounir Abou-Fadel, Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly, died from a heart attack at the American hospital where he was admitted four days earlier.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 1, 1987sunday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 6, 1987friday
The Lebanese Pound recorded a historic decline compared to the dollar which had almost reached the 100 LBP threshold. This fall worried the population.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
De 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.
February 7, 1987saturday
The confrontations intensified around the Palestinian camps of Chatila and Bourj Brajneh. The risk of escalation intensified.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
By 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.
February 12, 1987thursday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 15, 1987sunday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf 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).
December 2, 1987wednesday
While credits are unblocked to buy fuel and service stations are reopened, Victor Cassir, Minister of Industry and Oil, authorizes private companies to import fuel subject to a previous authorization by the Ministry of Oil.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 8, 1987tuesday
The storm is raging in the country. Floods provoke important damages and kill 5 persons. On the other hand, electric power becomes rare.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 28, 1987monday
Charles Malek dies at the age of 82 ans following a long period of illness. The news of the death of the former Council's Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs saddens the political, as well as the academic and intellectual sets. The American President Ronald Reagan addresses an emotional tribute to the memory of the academic, the philosopher and the politician.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 3, 1988sunday
Murderous Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist Party positions in the region of Saida make kill 21 persons and wound 11.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 4, 1988monday
A Progressive Socialist Party member hijacks a Lebanese Army helicopter. This affair triggers a maritime blockade imposed by the Army on the Chouf region.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 10, 1988sunday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 17, 1988sunday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 20, 1988wednesday
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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 September 1987, 18 January 1988 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf (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).
January 21, 1988thursday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
According 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%.
January 25, 1988monday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 27, 1988wednesday
Ralph Schary is kidnapped in West Beirut. Married to Rana Mounla, a Muslim from Tripoli, he is the third West German national who is kidnapped.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 29, 1988friday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2, 1988tuesday
Jacques Merrin, a Frenchman working for the DGSE, is killed by unknown persons in the neighborhood of the Palace of Justice.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 3, 1988wednesday
February 4, 1988thursday
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 12, 1988friday
An explosive charge of 880 grs of TNT is found and diffused in the airplane that has to transport President Gemayel to Sanaa.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 7, 1988wednesday
On the fifth day of a blockade imposed by the closure of the Museum-Berbir junction, the only supply road for fuel and food products, the bank of Lebanon gives up to the pressures and unfreezes credits for the West Beirut sector for direct importation of flour.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 13, 1988tuesday
An agreement takes place between the employers and the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers. The minimum wage is thus increased to 25,000 LBP.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 20, 1988tuesday
Four days after the liberation of the R.C.I.C. Swiss delegate, Peter Winkler, kidnapped in Southern Lebanon on November 17 and released on December 16, the Red Cross International Committee decides to suspend its operations in Lebanon immediately and to repatriate its delegates.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 29, 1988thursday
Two French little girls (Marie-Laure and Virginie Valente) kidnapped 13 months earlier are delivered by the Libyan authorities to a French government emissary. The year ends in a very tense climate. The Lebanese are wondering about their future.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 8, 1989sunday
After the fightings in Beirut, the Amal movement and the Hezbollah continue their bloody fightings in the Iqlim-el-Touffah.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 10, 1989tuesday
The extraordinary conference of Arab ministers of Foreign Affairs was held in Tunis without the Lebanese delegation although the conference covered primarily the Lebanese crisis.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 January 1989 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf: Syria, isolated among Arab states, reluctantly accepted the Lebanon commission the Arab League's Council of Ministers set up on 12 January under Kuwait's foreign minister. Iraq launched it to check Syria.
January 18, 1989wednesday
The great Lebanese poet and drama author, Georges Schehade, dies at the age of 81 in his Parisian house. Georges Schehade wrote in French.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 20, 1989friday
The chief of the National Liberal Party, Dany Chamoun, met with Walid Joumblatt, chief of the Progressive Socialist Party, in Deir el Kamar. Moreover, Beiteddine was busy organizing the return of the refugees.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
In January 1989 Walid Jumblatt made his strongest appeal yet for displaced Christians to return to the Chouf and Aley. Dany Chamoun attended the conference Jumblatt held; Samir Geagea did not. According to Hanf, few displaced people returned.
January 30, 1989monday
Following negotiations conducted in Damascus, the pro-Syrian Amal movement and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah sign an agreement putting an end to their armed conflict that cost the life of 400 persons in 10 months.
\_this day in full the books also date it 25 January 1989 \_on this day
\_what the books add
The dates differ: Hanf says Amal and Hezbollah suspended their war on 25 January, and also writes that the Syrian-Iranian ceasefire took until the spring. De Clerck and Malsagne date the ceasefire to February 1989. Picard names Syria and Iran as sponsors. Death tolls depend on the source and the period: some sources put civilian deaths at about 2,000 for 1988-1990 (de Clerck and Malsagne); an al-Nahar-based count gives 635 dead across 147 incidents between 1985 and 1991; Georges Corm estimated 2,000 dead for 1988-1989.
February 1, 1989wednesday
Presidents Hoss, Husseini, and General Aoun did not come up with an agreement in Tunis.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf: Aoun told the Tunis meeting he could settle Lebanese differences himself once Syria withdrew; Hoss and Husseini put reform first.
previous page 7 of 8 next
