31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002
Issue No.571
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 Jan. - 6 Feb. 2002 Issue No.571 |
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The butcher's assistant
The assassination of right-wing Lebanese Christian leader, Elie Hobeika, evokes memories of the country's ugly civil war, Zeina Abu Rizk reports from Beirut, and Amira Howeidy explores the assassination's impact on the case pending against Ariel Sharon in the Belgian courts
Lebanon's "unbeatable" Christian warlord Elie Hobeika, one of the most controversial figures in Lebanese political history, had his final rendez-vous with fate last Thursday, 24 January. He must have known that he would ultimately be killed by one of his numerous enemies. Sure enough, he died just like he had lived: violently.
Ironically enough, Hobeika's enemies used the same method of assassination that he himself resorted to more than once during the Lebanese civil war. The weapon of choice was a booby-trapped vehicle, laden with 10 kilogrammes of explosives and parked at a distance of 100 metres from Hobeika's home. The Mercedes car-bomb exploded just as Hobeika's Range Rover drove past at 9.30am on Thursday -- flipping the former minister's car upside down and setting it ablaze.
All four of the car's passengers -- Hobeika and three bodyguards, Metri Ajram, Walid Zein and Fares Sweidan -- were killed instantly. The scene seemed awfully familiar to many Lebanese, and at once revived the bitter memories of the civil war.
Lebanon was quick to accuse Israel, claiming that 45-year-old Hobeika was killed to prevent him from testifying in an impending court case against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Belgium. The prosecution in the case holds Sharon directly responsible for 1982's brutal massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila camps.
At that time, Sharon was Israeli Defence Minister and had close connections with Hobeika, who was allegedly present in the camp over the three days that the killings were going on. Hobeika, however, has denied the charges and claimed in a recent interview that he did not then have an army under his control to carry out the killing.
Soon after survivors of the Sabra and Shatila massacre filed their case in Belgium, Hobeika held a press conference at which he declared that he would reveal information which would prove who was the main party responsible for the massacre -- thereby implicating Sharon.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud strongly condemned the assassination, saying that it was the work of people who did not wish to see a return of law and order to the country. To the astonishment of many Lebanese -- who consider Hobeika to be one of the conflict's bloodiest warlords -- Lahoud conferred the National Order of the Cedars with the rank of commander on the former militia leader.
There was a muted reaction to Hobeika's assassination in the Sabra and Shatila camps. Refugees seemed reluctant to celebrate the bloody murder because of the political cost this might incur. Nevertheless, they were quick to suggest an Israeli conspiracy. Camp residents were forbidden to talk to journalists for a period of 48 hours, but news broadcasts boomed across the camps' narrow streets as shopkeepers cranked up the volume on radios and television sets to follow the breaking news.
Since Thursday, at least three suspects have been detained in connection with Hobeika's murder, including George Hanna, the original owner of the booby-trapped car that caused the former minister's death, and his cousin Charbel Hanna. Antoine Ruhayyem, a car dealer from Jezzine, was also held for questioning about the sale of the Mercedes.
Hobeika's last rites were read on Saturday in Mar Taqla's Church in Hazmieh, just a short distance from the place where he was killed. A cross-section of important Lebanese politicians from various political and religious groups attended the funeral, including representatives of the Lebanese president and of Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad. Hobeika's wife Gina, his son Joe, his mother Badr, and his brother Charles were clearly all still in shock.
Hobeika's friends called him "HK" -- his war nickname and favourite title -- in reference to Heckler and Koch, his favourite brand of firearm, and also to his own family name which had the same resonance.
Hobeika began his political career in 1972, aged just 16, when he joined the Christian Phalange Party. In those days, he was still an innocent young man horrified by violence. "On my way back home from school, I had to pass by a slaughterhouse. I used to turn my face away each time I walked by this place. I just couldn't stand the sight of blood," Hobeika was fond of recalling.
But the young HK rapidly became familiar with scenes of terror and violence as civil war broke out and a darker chapter of Lebanon's history was opened. This is the era in which in his contributions really stood out.
He began his career as a militant, receiving military training in Israel and rapidly climbing the ranks of the Phalange Party and later the Lebanese Forces -- another Christian party which was disbanded after the war. Just like most Christian fighters at the time, he was ferociously hostile to Palestinians, leftists, Islamic factions and their Syrian supporters.
Halfway into the Lebanese conflict, and just two years after he was implicated in the massacre of Palestinians and Lebanese Muslims during the Israeli invasion, Hobeika switched sides, warming up his relationship with the Syrians.
Hobeika has twice been an MP and also held various ministerial portfolios in post- war governments. Having lost a re-election bid in 2000, Hobeika turned his efforts towards mobilising a Christian political movement.
Hobeika's enemies had many reasons to despise him. He betrayed his people to the Israelis and was seen as a mass murderer by the Palestinians. He also had enemies among the various Lebanese communities, including his own. His latest political choices discredited him in the eye of a large faction of the Maronites, who are generally hostile to Damascus' presence in Lebanon and its influence over Lebanese affairs.
For many, he was first an Israeli agent, and later a Syrian one. For others still, he was a double agent and a dangerous man.
"Death does not frighten me," HK used to claim. On the contrary, danger was a challenge he used to enjoy and look for in each activity he undertook or sport he played. Although he admitted his responsibility for "a lot of bad acts" in the past, Hobeika claimed he enjoyed holy protection, and had great faith in God, as well as an exhaustive knowledge of religious texts. His life was a story of intrigue, to say the least. His death, too, may remain an enigma.
Hobeika's funeral in Mar Taqla's church in Beirut on Sunday
photo: Reuters
Taking evidence to the grave
For many months, the lawyers who filed a case in the Belgian courts against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- seeking to indict the man who, they allege, perpetrated the Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon in 1982 -- faced a serious dilemma. Should they include the name of Lebanese warlord Elie Hobeika as a defendant? Last week, their decision was made for them, when Hobeika was assassinated in a car explosion in Beirut.An icon of Christian Lebanese extremism who fought against the Palestinian presence in his country, Hobeika was best known for his role in the carnage committed by the Lebanese Christian militia, the Phalange -- of which he was leader -- against Palestinian refugees and Lebanese inhabitants of the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in 1982. More than 2,000 innocent victims were killed in the massacre.
Despite its severity, the massacre was overlooked one way or the other by the Lebanese establishment back then. For all concerned, it was more comfortable to see the massacre as just another episode in the long Lebanese civil war. Protected by Israel and later by a new ally, Syria, Hobeika's power and influence in Lebanon made talking about his bloody past a taboo as far as many were concerned.
Recently however, Hobeika's role in the massacre has forced its way back into the public eye. Taking advantage of Belgian law that allows for universal jurisdiction more than 20 survivors of the massacre filed a complaint against the perpetrators on 18 June 2001. The charges levelled include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Hobeika was not on the list of possible criminals. Nevertheless, his name -- conspicuous by its absence -- was, inevitably, once again on everyone's lips.
Immediately before the complaint was filed, the BBC aired a television documentary on the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the first of its kind ever made. The film explicitly focused on Hobeika's role as much as it did on the Israelis.
Much of the evidence mentioned in the programme came from the results of an Israeli administrative inquiry into the massacre. The inquiry claimed Hobeika had a direct role in the bloodbath. According to the inquiry's report, Hobeika once recalled how a Phalangist colleague asked him over the radio what should be done with 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. To many, this was enough to implicate Hobeika.
The prosecution's original complaint in the Belgian case did not include any Lebanese names and focused on the role of the Israeli army -- which surrounded the camp and lit the night sky with a stream of flares shot from helicopters and mortars. But it was the BBC documentary that really struck a sensitive chord. A few days after the complaint was filed, Hobeika held a news conference in Beirut and said he had "irrefutable proof" of his innocence in the killings and that he was willing to testify in the legal proceedings in Belgium. "I have evidence that would alter the Israeli version of what happened," he claimed. Up until his death, however, he had not presented a shred of this evidence, at least in public.
A few days before his assassination, Hobeika met with a delegation of Belgian senators during their visit to Lebanon. According to senator Josy Dubie, quoted by AFP, Hobeika said that he had "revelations" to disclose about the massacres, but that he felt "threatened." When Dubie asked him why he did not simply come clean and reveal everything he knew, Hobeika replied, "I am saving it for the trial." Hobeika and Dubie's meeting was recorded but the complete version has not been released to the public.
For most observers, the obvious motivation behind Hobeika's assassination would be to stop him from presenting the evidence he claimed he had. Nevertheless, it remains impossible to verify the importance of Hobeika's mystery evidence, if it existed at all. According to those leading the case in Belgium, however, one thing at least is clear: Hobeika's testimony would probably have implicated Ariel Sharon.
How important would Hobeika have been to the Belgian prosecution's case? Dyab Abou Jahjah, president of the Arab European League (AEL) -- one of two legal bodies now handling the complaint in Belgium -- stressed that Hobeika's testimony as a defendant would be very different from any he could give as a witness. "But the man wasn't a [potential] witness. His position as a defendant, a criminal, would have forced him to testify," said Abou Jahjah. In Abou Jahjah's view, Hobeika's death will not affect the case significantly.
A disagreement over whether Hobeika should be named in the complaint has caused a rift between lawyers acting on the victims' behalf. Lebanese lawyer Chibli Mallat did not want to include Hobeika's name in the official complaint submitted on June 18 and succeeded in removing it. As a result, there are now two legal teams handling the same case, the AEL and Mallat's team. The AEL wanted to include Hobeika's name because of his alleged involvement, but Mallat chose instead to focus on Israel's role and to hold the Israelis responsible for the massacre.
The riddles and complexities of the case eventually led the examining magistrate to freeze his investigation last September and refer it to the Belgian Court of Appeals. The higher court will be deciding if Belgium is competent to look into the case in the first place. So far, three sessions have been held by the Court of Appeals, the last of which took place a week ago -- just a day before Hobeika's assassination. The court will announce its decision on 6 March.
As for Hobeika, unless he has entrusted others with the evidence he claimed he possessed, his side of the story will remain buried with him.
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