Elie Hobeika
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Elie Hobeika (1956–2002) was a Phalangist and Lebanese Forces militia commander during the Lebanese Civil War. He was a politician and government minister in the post-war period. He is best known as the commander of the Lebanese Forces militia which committed the massacre of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in 1982.
Hobeika was born in Kleiat in 1956. He finished his schooling at 16 years of age, by which time he had already joined Lebanon’s fascist 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 Al Damur . The following year Hobeika became commander of the southern sector for the Phalange. During a lull in the fighting in 1978 Hobeika worked for the 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.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon. Hobeika was appointed as chief liaison officer between LF/Phalange and their Israeli allies. On 15th September the Israeli army occupied west Beirut. The Israelis let the Phalange militia into the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla, allegedly to remove Palestinian fighters. Hobeika was in command of this operation. Over the following three days the Phalange massacred the inhabitants of the camps. Estimates of the numbers killed vary up to a maximum of 3,000.
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.
Over the next few years as support for the Lebanese Forces started to decline Samir Geagea, Karim Pakradouni, and Elie Hobeika forced the resignation in 1985 of the then commander of the Lebanese Forces, Fouad Abu Nadir. Elie Hobeika was named head of its executive committee.
On January 15, 1986, Samir Geagea led a coup that removed Elie Hobeika from Lebanese Forces command, mainly due to Hobeika signing the Tri-Partite Accord with Syria and moving closer to Syria politically. Hobeika 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 as minister for Social Affairs and the Handicapped and in 1993 minister of Electricity and Water. He was reassigned as the minister of Electricity and Water in 1996, a period which saw massive power cuts and little electricity. The government was outraged at the alleged corruption of his ministry. Hobeika was greatly embarrassed in 1999 by the publication of a book written by a former aide, Robert Hatem, which exposed Hobeika's involvement in a range of crimes and indecent activities.
Elie Hobeika was killed, along with his driver and bodyguards, by a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon on 24 January 2002. Ten kilograms of TNT was 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 not been heard from since.
Elie Hobeika was scheduled to testify against Ariel Sharon about his involvement in the 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.
Celebratory gunfire was reported in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon after Hobeika's death.
See also
External link
- Pictures from the assassination (http://www.lebaneseforces.com/hobeika.asp)