Elie Hobeika
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Elie Hobeika (1956–24 Jan 2002) (Arabic:إيلي حبيقة) was a Phalangist and Lebanese Forces militia commander during the Lebanese Civil War. He was a pro-Syrian politician and government minister in the post-war period. He is best known for his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 and for allegations that the atrocities were committed in collusion with Syrian authorities.
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[edit] Early years
Hobeika was born in Kleiat, Lebanon in 1956. He finished his schooling at 16 years of age, by which time he had already joined Lebanon's Phalange Party and by the start of the war he was a member of the militia of that organisation. In 1976 members of Hobeika's family, including his fiancée, were killed in the PLO massacre at Damour. The following year Hobeika became commander of the southern sector for the Phalange. During a lull in the fighting in 1978 Hobeika worked for Banco do Brasil, rejoining the militia and participating in the Phalangist raid which resulted in the murder of rival militia commander Tony Frangieh and his family in June of that year. Later he was promoted to head of the third division of the Phalange in charge of special operations and in 1979 promoted to security chief of the Lebanese Forces (combined militias) as head of Intelligence.
[edit] Lebanese Civil War
Among the evidence heard at the Israeli government’s subsequent Kahan Commission of enquiry was how Hobeika was asked by a Phalangist colleague over the radio what should be done with the 50 Palestinian women and children prisoners. He had replied: "This is the last time you are going to ask me a question like that. You know exactly what to do." His colleague had laughed in response. In 1985 Hobeika ordered an assassination attempt on Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah that dramatically failed but resulted in more than 80 deaths. According to Bob Woodward's book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, the CIA asked Hobeika to kill Fadlallah but asked for minimal bloodshed. The fiasco led the CIA to terminate its relationship with Hobeika.
Over the next few years as support for the Lebanese Forces declined, and in 1985, Samir Geagea, Karim Pakradouni, and Elie Hobeika forced the resignation of the then commander of the Lebanese Forces, Fuad Abu Nadir. Fouad Abu Nadir was considered too close to Amine Gemayel (he was Gemayel's nephew). Amine, unlike his brother Bachir was disliked by the LF leaders. Elie Hobeika was named head of the LF after Abu Nadir's removal.
On January 15, 1986, Samir Geagea led a coup that removed Elie Hobeika from Lebanese Forces command, mainly due to Hobeika signing the Tripartite Accord with Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblat under Syria's conduct and moving closer to Damascus politically. Hobeika was besieged in his Qarantina headquarters by Geagea's men (Elias el Murr was trapped with Hobeika in the same building) and was evacuated by Michel Aoun after strong Syrian pressures. He and his supporters fled to Damascus. They returned to Lebanon as a pro-Syrian LF faction and were stationed in Zahle. In 1990 Hobeika supported the parliamentary faction and Syria in the war initiated by Michel Aoun.
After the civil war ended in 1990 Hobeika was amnestied like many others and became Minister for the Displaced. In October 1992 he was appointed Minister for Social Affairs and the Handicapped. He was reassigned to the Ministry of Electricity and Water in 1996, a period which saw massive power cuts and little electricity, mainly because of the Israeli operation Grapes of Wrath. In 1998, General Emile Lahoud became president of Lebanon and appointed Selim Hoss Prime Minister. Hoss did not ask Hobeika to join his government. Robert Hatem, Hobeika's former bodyguard later wrote that Hobeika was behind an assassination attempt against Hoss in 1985 which might explain Hoss' decision. In 2000 Hobeika lost his parliament seat, and thus immunity. In June 2001, Chebli Mallat, a left-wing Maronite lawyer, filed a case against Hobeika in Belgium under a law that permitted to sue foreigners for alleged crimes against humanity. The case was later dropped as the Belgian law was amended.
[edit] Hobeika's assassination
In 1999, Hobeika's former bodyguard, Robert Hatem (alias Cobra), published a book accusing his former boss of masterminding numerous assassinations and crimes. The book was widely read in Lebanon through the Internet. Allegations made by Hatem (most of which were later confirmed by former LF security chief Assaad Chaftari) include the following:
- The 1978 assassination of Zghorta MP Tony Franjieh (in conjunction with Geagea)
- The assassinations of rival figures in the LF
- The 1982 execution of four Iranian diplomats abducted by the LF
- The kidnapping of businessmen Roger Tamraz and Charles Chalouhi
- A 1984 attempt to assassinate Selim Hoss (then education minister)
- A 1985 attempt to assassinate MP Mustafa Saad.
The most astonishing claim of the book was an allegation that Hobeika cooperated with the Syrians in the assassination of Lebanese Forces leader and Lebanese President-elect Bachir Gemayel in 1982 and that the massacre of Sabra and Shatila was (allegedly) conceived by Hobeika and Assad in order to embarrass Israel.
Hobeika was greatly embarrassed by this book. Selim Hoss was Prime Minister at the time of publication, and he initiated an inquiry. Mustafa Saad also asked for an inquiry on the 1985 bombing which killed his daughter and left him disabled. Investigations were later dropped. But this severely affected Hobeika's relationship with Syria. In January 2002, an investigation was launched on two of Hobeika's deputies in the ministry of energy (Fadi Saroufim and Rudy Baroudi) for corruption. Given that corruption was open and widespread in Lebanon at the time, the opening of such an investigation was a clear indication that Hobeika's relationship had collapsed.
On New Year's Eve, Dr. Jean Ghanem, Hobeika's deputy and second in command in his party crashed his car into a tree. He died on January 14th 2002. Hobeika told several people that Ghanem's death was not accidental. A few weeks later on January 24th 2002, Elie Hobeika was killed, along with his driver and bodyguards, by a car bomb in Hazmieh (East-Beirut) near his house and a few hundred meters from a local headquarters of the Syrian secret services. Ten kilograms of TNT were placed in a nearby sedan which was detonated; four oxygen tanks in Hobeika's car amplified the explosion. A previously unheard of group calling itself "Lebanese for a Free and Independent Lebanon" sent a fax claiming responsibility, calling Hobeika a "Syrian agent"; the group has never been heard from since. Although reports of Israeli and CIA involvement were mentioned in his assassination, it was never confirmed, rather blamed directly on Islamist militants. On March 7 Michael ('Mike') Nassar, an ex-Lebanese Forces figure close to Hobeika was killed in his car. Nassar was in charge of selling arms to the LF after 1990 and is said to have distributed some of the money to his uncle Antoine Lahad and ex-LF, while keeping most of it for himself.
Just before his death, Elie Hobeika publicly declared his intention to testify against Ariel Sharon about his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre in a Belgian court's trial for crimes against humanity. A Belgian senator, Josy Dubie, was quoted as saying that Hobeika had told him several days before his death that he had "revelations" to disclose about the massacres and felt "threatened". When Dubie had asked him why he did not reveal all the facts he knew immediately, Hobeika is reported to have said: "I am saving them for the trial". Lebanese Interior Minister Elias Murr has accused Israel of being behind the act, citing a trace on the license plates of the sedan; this was staunchly denied by Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, and no reliable evidence of Israeli involvement has been discovered as of date.
Celebratory gunfire was reported in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon after Hobeika's death. Various actors are rumored to be behind Hobeika's assassination: Syria, Israel, Palestinian organisations, CIA…
