The Special International Tribunal for Lebanon, now infamous for its procedural flaws and inability to maintain any useful public legitimacy, has focused the minds of the Lebanese on the assassination of former Prime Minister Hariri in 2005 and the ones that followed since that date. We tend to forget that political assassinations of major figures had become a cultural characteristic soon after independence (the assassination of PM Riad El-Solh). The Golden Age was to come in the civil war of 1975-1990.
Many would be familiar with the boardgame CLUEDO where players are invited to solve a crime riddle by a deductive process and identify the perpetrator, the weapon and the location. Needless to say that our real life Lebanese game is open ended with the perpetrator (or perpetrators) remaining unidentified decades later.
I believe that unresolved crimes of that magnitude and impact cannot just be dismissed and relegated to history books. Riddles and mysteries are not conducive to reconciliation and the forging of a national identity. Whether we are facing one all-mighty perpetrator or a number of competing ones, finishing this game of CLUEDO is essential for our national closure.
Following is a list of the most notorious unresolved crimes where due judicial process has been absent or incomplete...
Round 1
Who Killed Kamal Joumblatt on March 16th 1977 in The Shouf mountains by shooting
Round 2
Who killed Tony Frangieh on June 13th 1978 in Ehden by shooting?
Round 3
Who killed Salim Lawzi on 9th March 1980 in Beirut by shooting?
Round 4
Who killed Ryad Taha on 23rd July 1980 in Beirut by shooting?
Round 5
Who killed President Bashir Gemayel on 14th September 1982 in Beirut by improvised explosive device?
Round 6
Who killed Prime Minister Rashid Karame on 1st June 1987 over the Mediterranean by improvised explosive device?
Round 7
Who killed Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled on 16th May 1989 in Beirut by detonating a car bomb?
Round 8
Who killed MP Nazem El Kadri on 22nd September 1989 in Beirut by shooting?
Round 9
Who Killed President Rene Moawad on22nd November 1989 in Beirut by detonating a car bomb?
Round 10
Who killed Dany Chamoun on 21st October 1990 in Baabda by shooting?
Round 11
Who Killed Elie Hobeika on 24th January 2002 in Hazmyeh by detonating a car bomb?
This list is far from exhaustive and many others figures but also ordinary Lebanese with or without political affiliations fell victim to this obsession with the board game. We also owe it to them to improve our completion rate.
1 comment:
"Riddles and mysteries are not conducive to reconciliation and the forging of a national identity." Well said and absolutely true. Hariri's murder will soon be added to this list because, for the purpose of an illusory national unity, the killers'identity will remain a riddle.
Post a Comment