Lebanese civil war

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The Lebanese Civil War lasted from 1975 to 1990 . In the course of this time, various groups in Lebanon fought each other in changing coalitions. There were also several interventions by other states.

root cause

Already in the 1950s there had been strong tensions between Arab nationalists and pro-Western Christians, which led to a state crisis under the Chamoun government with subsequent US intervention . However, the outbreak of open heavy fighting was only triggered by the arrival of the PLO armed forces displaced from Jordan in Black September 1970 . With the approval of Muslim Lebanese groups, these established an armed state within the state and immediately sided with the Arab nationalists. With the outbreak of open fighting between the Maronite Phalange militia and the Palestinian PLO, the civil war began in April 1975. This was preceded by a series of reciprocal attacks and massacres between these groups.

course

Holiday Inn Hotel Beirut damaged in the early phase of the 1975/76 war during the so-called hotel battle in the center

In the beginning the fighting was mainly between the National Movement made up of Muslim, Palestinian and left-wing forces and the Lebanese Front made up of Christian, especially Maronite groups. In addition, there were Syrian interventions, which intervened in 1976 with the mandate of the Arab League and a 20,000-strong Inter-Arab security force on behalf of the Maronite groups. Within the Lebanese front, the right-wing phalangists of the Maronites under Pierre Gemayel gained dominant influence. Since 1979 there has also been fighting between the Sunni ( Murabitun militia ) and Shiite militias as well as between Lebanese and Palestinian as well as pro- Syrian ( Amal militia ) and pro-Iranian groups - forerunners of Hezbollah .

Beirut in April 1978

In direct response to the coastal road attack and to destroy the PLO bases in southern Lebanon , Israel invaded southern Lebanon for a week (March 14-21, 1978). The Operation Litani was to protect the northern border of Israel from armed attacks and assaults. Israel later supported the Christian militias and the Israel-friendly South Lebanese Army (SLA) with money, equipment and training aid.

From June to September 1982 Israeli forces waged the Lebanon campaign with the aim of smashing the armed Palestinian structures. Israeli forces fought violently with Syrian troops in 1982 , then besieged West Beirut and forced the PLO to withdraw from Lebanon. This withdrawal was controlled by the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) and completed in August 1982.

Checkpoint in Beirut, 1982

The maronite and leader of the Phalangists, Bachir Gemayel (son of Pierre Gemayel) was elected president on August 23rd. On September 14, 1982, Bachir Gemayel died in a bomb attack. Two days later, around 150 militiamen carried out a massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila . Estimates of the number of victims are very controversial and range from 460 to 2,500. The Israeli military had sent the militiamen to the camps, with the stipulation that they should look for weapons stores there. The agreement of May 17, 1983 between the United States , Israel and Lebanon turned out to be a failure. In May 1985 Sabra, Shatila and Burj el-Barajneh were again the scene of heavy fighting (first "camp war"), this time between the Palestinian PLO and the Shiite Amal militia.

After Bashir's death, his older brother Amin Gemayel became president; he held the office for a full term (six years). The peace talks held between the parties to the civil war during this period were also unsuccessful. The Phalangists under Amin Gemayel lost influence on the Lebanese front when the Christian right split.

The US embassy in Beirut, which
was destroyed by a bomb attack in April 1983

In 1982, Multinational Forces (MNF) were again stationed in Beirut; they were provided by the USA, France , Italy and Great Britain . On October 23, 1983, two devastating simultaneous bomb attacks were carried out on the accommodations of the US Marines and the French paratroopers ; 241 US soldiers and 58 French died. In April 1983 and September 1984 bomb attacks were also carried out on the US embassy in Beirut. The MNF were then withdrawn in early 1984. Hezbollah was blamed for the attacks, but it denied being involved. The Lebanese armed forces , which had been rebuilt with US aid , now split up into denominational militias. Israel withdrew its troops to part of southern Lebanon ("Security Zone") by June 1985; they held it together with the SLA until summer 2000.

Human rights violations during the war

The Karantina massacre occurred early in the war when Christian militias murdered Palestinians , Shiites and other civilians in the Christian-dominated eastern part of Beirut. Only two days later in Damour the Damour massacre of Palestinian and Muslim militias against hundreds perpetrated by Christian civilians. Another massacre of the war took place in Sabra and Shatila , where phalangist militants killed over 1,000 Palestinian refugees in the southern metropolitan area of Beirut .

output

When the Lebanese parliament could not agree on a successor for Amin Gemayel in 1988, he appointed the military chief of staff General Michel Aoun as head of government, who in March 1989 declared a war of liberation against Syria. A Muslim counter-government was proclaimed and, on the Syria issue, there was a break between the Maronite Aoun and the Maronite militia leader Samir Geagea , which resulted in heavy fighting between the Christian Forces Lebanaises and the Christian parts of the regular armed forces commanded by Aoun. The latter were crushed by the advancing Syrian army in October 1990. Already in October 1989 a peace agreement was signed in Ta'if with the mediation of Saudi Arabia . a. provided for an equal distribution of seats for Muslims and Christians in the Lebanese parliament. After Aoun's defeat, the agreement came into force.

The civil war left 90,000 dead, 115,000 injured and 20,000 missing. 800,000 people fled abroad. A "cooperation agreement" concluded under Syrian pressure in May 1991 made Lebanon practically a Syrian protectorate until 2005 .

The railway network in Lebanon ( Chemin de fer de l'Etat Libanais , CEL) was destroyed by the civil war and is now completely shut down.

literature

  • Robert Fisk : Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War , Oxford 2001.
  • Theodor Hanf: Lebanon Conflict; in: Udo Steinbach / Rüdiger Robert: The Near and Middle East. Politics, society, economy, history, culture, volume 1, basics, structures and problem areas, Opladen 1988, pp. 663–680.
  • Theodor Hanf: Coexistence in War. State collapse and emergence of a nation in Lebanon, Baden-Baden 1990.
  • Farid el-Khazen: The Breakdown of the State in Lebanon 1967–1976, Oxford 2000.
  • Ulrich Kienzle : Farewell to 1001 nights. My attempt to understand the Arabs , Edition Sagas, Stuttgart 2011.
  • Martin Rink : The civil war in Lebanon, 1975 to 1990 , in: Middle East (= guide to history), 2nd revised edition, on behalf of the Military History Research Office , ed. by Bernhard Chiari and Dieter H. Kollmer with the assistance of Martin Rink, Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, pp. 120–135.

Web links

Commons : Lebanese Civil War  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files