Elie Hobeika

Elie Hobeika (* 1956 in Kleiat ; † January 24, 2002 in Beirut ; Arabic إيلي حبيقة, DMG Īlī Ḥubaiqa ) was a member of the Phalange Militia and a commander of the Forces Libanaises (FL) during the Lebanese Civil War . In the post-war period he was a politician and minister. Hobeika is best known for his role in the 1982 bloodbath in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila .

Life

Hobeika was born on September 22, 1956 in Kleiat. When he graduated from school at the age of 16, he became a member of the Kata'ib party, and when the civil war began, he joined the associated militia . In 1976, members were his family, including his fiancée, in which by the PLO committed Damour massacre killed. The following year, Hobeika became the commander of the southern sector of the Phalange . He worked for Banco do Brasil during a period of slackening fighting , but rejoined the militia and participated in the Phalangist attack that culminated in the June 1977 murder of rival militia commander Tony Frangieh and his family. He was later promoted to commander in chief of the Phalange's third division and was responsible for special operations. In 1979 he became security chief of the Forces Libanaises as head of the reconnaissance.

In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. Hobeika was appointed liaison officer between the Forces Libanaises and their Israeli allies. On September 15, the Israeli army occupied West Beirut . Under their protection, the Phalange militia entered the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila, allegedly to remove PLO fighters. During the next three days, the Phalange, under the direct command of Hobeika, randomly murdered several hundred residents of the camp ( Sabra and Shatila massacres ).

In 1985, Hobeika ordered the March 8, 1985 Beirut car bomb attack on Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah , which failed but killed more than 80 people. According to Bob Woodward's book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA , the CIA had given Hobeika the order to kill Fadlallah, but demanded the lowest possible blood toll. The fiasco caused the CIA to end its collaboration with Hobeika.

After support for the Forces Lebanaises waned over the next few years, Samir Geagea , Karim Pakradouni and Elie Hobeika pushed for the removal of the then commander of the Forces Lebanaises Fuad Abu Nadir in 1985 . He has been accused of being too familiar with Amine Gemayel (he was Gemayel's nephew). Amine was unpopular with the leaders of the Forces Libanaises, unlike his brother Bachir Gemayel . After Abu Nadir's departure, Elie Hobeika was his successor.

On January 15, 1986, Samir Geagea led an action that removed Elie Hobeika from the head of the Forces Libanaises, mainly because of Hobeika's signature on the tripartite agreement with Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblat . Hobeika was besieged at his headquarters ( Elias Murr was trapped in the same building with Hobeika) and was freed by Michel Aoun after strong Syrian pressure. He and his followers fled to Damascus . They returned to Lebanon as a pro-Syrian split from the FL. In 1990 Hobeika supported parliament and Syria in the war started by Michel Aoun.

After the end of the civil war in 1990, Hobeika was given amnesty like many others and was minister of the displaced persons. In October 1992 he was appointed Minister for Social Affairs and the Disabled, and in 1993 Minister for Electricity and Water. He was reassigned to that ministry in 1996, at a time when there were massive electricity blackouts, largely because of the Israeli Operation Fruits of Anger . When General Émile Lahoud became Lebanese President in 1998 , he entrusted Selim al-Hoss with forming a government. Hoss did not ask Hobeika to become a member of his cabinet. Robert Hatem, Hobeika's former bodyguard, later wrote that Hobeika was behind an assassination attempt on Hoss in 1985, which may explain his decision. In 2000, Hobeika lost his parliamentary seat and consequently his immunity . In June 2001, Chebli Mallat , a Maronite lawyer, filed a lawsuit against Hobeika in Belgium , where a law allowed prosecution of foreigners accused of crimes against humanity. The case was later declared closed after the Belgian law was changed.

Assassination attempt on Hobeika

In 1999 Hobeika's former bodyguard Robert Hatem (aka Cobra) published a book in which he accused his former boss of planning numerous assassinations and crimes. The book was distributed in Lebanon through the Internet and widely read. The charges made by Hatem (most of which were later confirmed by former LF security chief Assaad Chaftari) included the assassination of Zgharta MP Tony Frangieh, the murder of rival people in the FL, the execution of four Iranian diplomats who abducted from the FL in 1982, the kidnapping of businessmen Roger Tamraz and Charles Chalouhi, the 1984 assassination attempt on Selim al-Hoss (then Minister of Education) and the assassination attempt on MP Mustafa Saad in 1985. The book's most shocking allegation was the accusation that Hobeika cooperated with the Syrians in the assassination attempt on the leader of the Forces Lebanaises and Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel in 1982 and that the bloodbath of Sabra and Shatila was allegedly instigated by Hobeika and Hafiz al-Assad in order to expose Israel.

Selim Hoss was Prime Minister at the time the book was published and initiated an investigation. Mustafa Saad also requested an investigation into the 1985 car bomb attack that killed his daughter and crippled himself, but those investigations were later dropped. However, Hobeika's relations with Syria have been affected. In January 2002, two deputies of Hobeika in the Ministry of Energy, Fadi Saroufim and Rudy Baroudi, began an investigation into corruption . Since corruption was widespread in Lebanon at the time, this is a sign that Hobeika's good relations no longer existed.

On New Year's Eve 2001, Dr. Jean Ghanem, Hobeika's deputy and second man in his party, against a tree. He died on January 14, 2002. Hobeika claimed that Ghanem's death was not an accident. On January 24, 2002, Elie Hobeika, along with his driver and bodyguards, was killed by a car bomb in Hazymieh, East Beirut, near his home, a few hundred meters from a Syrian intelligence agency. Ten kilograms of TNT were hidden in a parked car and exploded, the effect being amplified by four oxygen tanks in Hobeika's vehicle. A previously unknown group "Lebanese for a Free and Independent Lebanon" sent a fax in which they confessed to the attack and called Hobeika a " Syrian agent "; the group has not reappeared since. On March 7, 2002, Michael Nassar, a former member of the Forces Libanaises who was close to Hobeika, was killed in his car. Nassar had sold weapons to the LF after 1990. It was alleged that he passed on part of the money to his uncle Antoine Lahad or kept it for himself.

Shortly before his death, Elie Hobeika publicly announced his intention to testify against Ariel Sharon about his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila bloodbath in a Belgian court case. Belgian Senator Josy Dubie said that a few days before his death, Hobeika told him that he had revelations about the massacre and that he felt “threatened” . When Dubie asked him why he wasn't immediately disclosing all the facts, he replied that he was saving them for trial. Lebanese Interior Minister Elias Murr accused Israel of being behind the attack; this was resolutely denied by the Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres . Reliable evidence has not been released. The various rumors as to who was behind the attack on Hobeika, independently accused Syria, Israel, Palestinian organizations and the CIA, among others.

Web links

• Gary Gambill (MEIB) about the assassination (English)