629 news for January, February, June, July, September, December
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July 3, 1988sunday
Because of simultaneous breakdowns in the Zouk and Jyeh power plants and on the Jyeh-Jamhour network, numerous regions are deprived of electrical power for more than 18 hours.
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July 17, 1988sunday
While Beirut suffers powerlessly from the prolonged electricity failure and a tough water rationing, a flame of violence takes place in the North. Combats between the Jaafar and the population of Kobeyate kill 8 eight persons and wound about 30.
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September 8, 1988thursday
September 13, 1988tuesday
Fire exchanges between units of the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Forces in Sin-el-Fil and Mkalles killed one militiaman and injured another one.
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September 18, 1988sunday
Mikhael Daher, deputy from the North, 'was designated' candidate at the presidential elections in accordance with a Syrian-American agreement. This designation did not please everyone.
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 September 1988 \_on this day
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Hanf (pp. 569-570): the joint US-Syrian proposal came out of three days of talks in Damascus from 15 September, after which Murphy warned the Maronite Patriarch that the alternative to Daher was chaos.
September 20, 1988tuesday
September 22, 1988thursday
A few minutes before the expiration of his mandate, President Amine Gemayel named the Maronite commander of the army, general Michel Aoun, Prime Minister of a military government. According to the constitution, the ministers' council takes over the executive power in case of a vacancy of the presidency. However, the three Muslim Ministers withdraw immediately.
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Hanf (p. 570) says Gemayel signed the decrees at 23.45, after an ultimatum from Aoun and Geagea, and that the cabinet had six officers from six communities. Traboulsi's postscript dates the end of the term to October 1988, and Picard (p. 155) and Quéméner to August 1988; the other sources agree on 22 September.
September 23, 1988friday
General Aoun and Selim Hoss were fighting for the international recognition. The country was from now on divided in two regions run respectively in the 'East' by general Aoun and in the 'West' by Selim Hoss.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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January 8, 1989sunday
After the fightings in Beirut, the Amal movement and the Hezbollah continue their bloody fightings in the Iqlim-el-Touffah.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Hanf: Aoun told the Tunis meeting he could settle Lebanese differences himself once Syria withdrew; Hoss and Husseini put reform first.
February 9, 1989thursday
Anouar Fatayri, high official of the Progressive Socialist Party and his bodyguard Mohammed Saïd Abou Mehdi are assassinated in an ambush at the entry of the Jahlieh village in the Chouf.
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February 10, 1989friday
Confrontations are taking place between the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Forces in Jdeideh.
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Hanf cites estimates of 15,000 troops under Aoun and 10,000 militiamen, both sides heavily armed by Iraq, and dates the outbreak of heavy army-Lebanese Forces fighting to 10 February, Aoun accusing the militia of plotting a coup. De Clerck and Malsagne date the first clash to 14 February.
February 14, 1989tuesday
New confrontations between the army and the L.F. were taking place in Monteverde and next to the Justice Palace in Beirut, which created a general mobilization on both sides.
\_this day in full the books also date it 10 February 1989 \_on this day
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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.
February 16, 1989thursday
An agreement on military disengagement is concluded between the Army and the L.F., within in a four-party committee.
\_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.
February 17, 1989friday
A general Christian assembly is held in Bkerkeh, headquarters of the Maronite patriarch, in order to treat the L.F.-Army litigation.
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February 20, 1989monday
A meeting between General Aoun, Chief Commander of the Army, and Samir Geagea Chief of the L.F., takes place in Baabda. The goal of this meeting is to eliminate the differences between them.
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February 23, 1989thursday
The fifth basin of Beirut harbor, controlled by the L.F. is closed and the tax checkpoints of Berbara are dismantled.
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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').
June 12, 1989monday
The EEC gives its full support to the committee composed by the three Chiefs of State (Algerian, Saudi Arabian, and Moroccan) constituted during the Casablanca Summit in order to find a solution to the Lebanese crisis.
\_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).
June 15, 1989thursday
Electricity, fuel, and flour are the daily preoccupation of Lebanese. Once again, the power plant of Zouk announces that it cannot supply power more than 2 hours a day.
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July 5, 1989wednesday
In a joint declaration from Paris, Presidents Mitterand and Gorbatchev call for an immediate cease-fire.
\_this day in full the books also date it 5 June 1989 \_on this day
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Hanf dates a joint declaration by Presidents Gorbachev and Mitterrand on Lebanon, welcoming the Arab troika's efforts, to 5 June 1989.
September 6, 1989wednesday
2000 angry demonstrators have besieged the American Embassy. Twenty-four hours later, 30 American diplomats, including the Ambassador John Mc Carthy, leave Lebanon.
\_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.
September 21, 1989thursday
The Sunnite Deputy of the West Bekaa and former Minister, Nazem Kadri (74 years old), is killed in Verdun.
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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.
September 22, 1989friday
A cease-fire was officially observed while general Aoun answered favorably to the Arab peace proposals.
\_this day in full the books also date it 13 September 1989, 23 September 1989 \_on this day
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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.
September 24, 1989sunday
Crossing roads are finally opened and the flights at the International Beirut Airport resume. Even the maritime blockade against the Eastern regions is lifted.
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