René Moawad

René Moawad ( Arabic رينيه معوض Rēnēh Muʿawwaḍ ; * April 17, 1925 in Zgharta ; † November 22, 1989 in Beirut ) was President of Lebanon for 17 days in 1989until he was assassinated on November 22. Moadwad was a Maronite Christian with moderate views and had given citizens hope that the Lebanese civil war , which broke out in 1975, could be ended. Chawki Choveri , Lebanon's envoy to the United Nations , said, “This is the main disaster in these years of disasters that we have had so far.” Before he died, Moawad had turned to the nation with the words: “No country can or there can be no dignity without the unity of the people and there can be no unity without an agreement and there can be no agreement without reconciliation and there can be no reconciliation without forgiveness and compromise. ”His successor was Elias Hrawi .

Education and early career

Moawad attended De La Salle School in Tripoli and St. Joseph High School in Aintoura . He studied law at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Laws . He then joined the law firm of Abdullah Aref al-Yafi , a former prime minister , before opening his own law firm in Tripoli in 1951.

Parliamentary career

Moawad took his first step into politics in 1951, when he ran unsuccessfully for the Zgharta District seat in the National Assembly . Although he was defeated, the election established an alliance between him and the powerful Frangieh clan, which determined local politics in Zgharta. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1957 and re-elected in 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972 before becoming president. 1972 was the last parliamentary election before the Lebanese civil war , which raged from 1975 to 1990 and prevented further elections from being held.

Moawad was arrested in 1952 and shortly exiled to Alayh for participating in the riots that forced the resignation of President Béchara el-Khoury , the first Lebanese president after independence. He also fell out with Khoury's successor, Camille Chamoun , when he was considering a possible constitutional amendment to extend his term at the time he was first elected to the National Assembly.

Moawad became a strong believer in Chamoun's successor, Fuad Schihab . He chaired the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee and the Finance and Budget Committee. From October 31, 1961 to February 20, 1964, he was Minister for Post and Telecommunications in the government of Prime Minister Rashid Karami , who was also a Shihabist . From January 16 to November 24, 1969, he was Minister of Public Works, again under Karami, when Chehab's successor Charles Helou was President. In 1970, however, he broke with the Shihabists to support the election of his old allies Suleiman Frangieh against their candidate Elias Sarkis . Frangieh was elected by one vote.

On October 25, 1980, Moawad returned to the cabinet of President Elias Sarkis (who succeeded Frangieh in 1976) and Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan as Minister of Popular Education and Fine Arts, and remained in that post until Sarkis' term ended on September 24, 1982. The strength of his friendship with Suleiman Frangieh came under serious scrutiny that year as Moawad Bachir assisted Gemayel , Frangieh's enemy, in the election for the presidency, but the friendship was strong enough to withstand the strain, despite Frangieh's anger.

Election and assassination

Following the Taif Accords , which ended the civil war, the National Assembly met on November 5, 1989 at the Qoleiat Air Force Base in northern Lebanon and elected Moawad as President of Lebanon, 409 days after the post became vacant due to the end of Amin Gemayel's term stayed. The National Assembly had not chosen a successor at the time. Seventeen days later, on November 22, 1989, when Moawad was returning from the Lebanese Independence Day celebrations, a 250 kg booby trap set up in an empty shop building in West Beirut exploded next to his armored car . The police had previously cleared the street to clear up possible car bombs . The booby trap broke through two walls, tore Moawad's car in two, killing him and 23 other people. The attack was not initially investigated. Years later it was recognized that the assassination attempt on the spokesman for the board of directors of Deutsche Bank Alfred Herrhausen had been carried out with the same weapon technology of the Misznay-Schardin effect in the same year.

The identity and motives of those responsible are still the subject of discussion today. Some suspicions point to Syria : although Moawad was elected with Syrian support, he refused to be a puppet of the Syrians. Moawad's widow has hinted she suspects Syria. When she during the Cedar Revolution returned from protests against the Syrian occupation on 14 March 2005, stated Nayla Moawad : " Lebanon's independence was regained on March 14 and on March 14 I felt that I was revenge for the attack [on my Man] had taken. "

Private life and legacy

The son of Anis Bey Moawad , the mayor of Zgharta and his wife Evelyn Shalhoub , Moawad was the head of a prominent Zgharta family, but he was the first family member to represent the constituency in parliament.

In 1965 Moawad married Nayla Najib Issa El-Khoury , a relative of Moawad's old political opponent, Bechara El Khoury. Despite the historical enmity between the two families and the fifteen-year age difference, the marriage was happy. Daughter, Rima, born in 1966, is a Harvard graduate and now a lawyer in the United States . The son Michel was born in 1972, studied at the Sorbonne and is a lawyer and businessman.

Moawad's widow established the René Moawad Foundation to pursue the goals of dialogue, peace and social justice to which Moawad had dedicated his life. Nayla Moawad was elected to the National Assembly in 1991. She is a member of the opposition Qurnat Shahwan collection that opposes the Syrian military presence in Lebanon. In 2004 she announced her candidacy for the presidency to succeed Émile Lahoud , whose term should have ended in November 2004, but the election was postponed until 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Egmont R. Koch : ARD Report 2014 - New Findings in the Herrhausen Murder Case

predecessor	Office	successor
Amin Gemayel	President of the Lebanese Republic November 5-22, 1989	Élias Hrawi

personal data
SURNAME	Moawad, René
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mu'awwaḍ, Rīnih
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Lebanese President
DATE OF BIRTH	April 17, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zgharta
DATE OF DEATH	November 22, 1989
Place of death	Beirut

[1] Egmont R. Koch : ARD Report 2014 - New Findings in the Herrhausen Murder Case