Lebanon: Killing of
Gibran Tueni
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement -AI Index: MDE 18/011/2005 (Public)
News Service No: 340 -12 December 2005
Amnesty International condemned the killing this morning of journalist and MP
Gibran Tueni in a car bomb explosion in Beirut’s Mkalles suburb. His driver,
Nicolas Flouti, and two others were also killed in the blast and 10 passers-by
were injured.
Gibran Tueni, 48, was managing editor of an-Nahar newspaper and an outspoken
critic of Syria’s activities in Lebanon. He accused the Damascus authorities of
responsibility for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
al-Hariri in February and stated in August that he had received "accurate"
information that his own name was on an assassination hit-list. He was elected
as a member of parliament in national elections held in May.
On 6 December, Gibran Tueni called publicly for Lebanese President Emile Lahoud
to be questioned about a mass grave recently discovered at the Ministry of
Defence in al-Yarze on the grounds that Lahoud was Lebanon’s military commander
in 1990, the date when the bodies were apparently buried there. He also called
for an inquiry into the al-Yarze mass grave and another recently uncovered at
‘Anjar to be carried out jointly by Lebanese and international experts.
Amnesty International calls upon the Lebanese authorities to investigate the
killing of Gibran Tueni and bring the perpetrators to justice in line with
international standards. It also urges all political groups to respect freedom
of expression in the country and to refrain from acts of violence against
civilians.
The explosion that killed Gibran Tueni is at least the thirteenth to have
occurred, and the third targeting a journalist, since the bomb that killed
former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri and more than 20 others on 14 February. On
2 June, an-Nahar journalist Samir Qasir was killed in a car bomb explosion in
Beirut, and on 25 September May Chidiac was seriously injured in a car bomb
explosion on the outskirts of Beirut.
**See Amnesty International, Public Statement, Lebanon: Mass Graves -
Exhumations must be in line with international standards, and perpetrators
brought to justice (MDE 18/009/2005) , 5 December 2005
In Killers’ Company
Hayya Bina’s comments on Gibran Tuweini’s assassination
The time for denunciation and condemnation has passed. Hayya Bina joins all
those who are calling for the immediate establishment of an international
commission to identify those responsible for the string of political crimes
committed since last fall, starting with the attempted assassination of Minister
Marwan Hamade.
It is imperative to stop considering such a commission as a topic of political
debate. Those who are attempting to turn this issue into a subject of political
discussion are the same who recently refused to denounce, or even comment on, a
recent speech made by Bashar al Assad in which he brazenly insulted the Lebanese
and, specifically, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
We must stop considering these statements as reputable political positions.
These people are not more protective of Lebanese sovereignty and independence
than those who are demanding the constitution of a court to bring to justice the
perpetrators of Hariri’s assassination and other recent political crimes in
Lebanon. These people, masquerading as defenders of Lebanese sovereignty, are,
in fact, blackmailing Lebanese citizens and denying them their justice.
Gibran Tuweini, in one of his last demands, called for the former Chief of Staff
and the current president, Emile Lahoud, to undergo questioning concerning the
mass graves found on the premises of the Ministry of Defense. Will the Lebanese
remember Gibran Tuweini’s request?
Those who refuse that justice be carried out, and those who refuse a credible
inquiry into the political crimes committed in Lebanon, can only be regarded as
trying to protect the killers or, perhaps, themselves as passive or active
accomplices in these deeds.
www.hayyabina.org
hayyabina@hayyabina.org
00 961 3 12 94 62
Tueni: Lebanon's new 'martyr' of independence
AFP 12/12/05: Lebanese Christian MP
and prominent newspaper editor Gibran Tueni, who was killed in a car bomb attack
on Monday, was a vocal anti-Syrian figure and impassioned advocate of his
country's independence.
The 48-year-old respected journalist and politician was close to Saad Hariri,
son of Lebanon's former Sunni Muslim prime minister Rafiq Hariri who was
assassinated in a 2005 Valentine Day's bomb in Beirut.
Many Lebanese, including Tueni, blamed Syria for the murder -- a charge Damascus
has repeatedly denied -- and spearheaded calls for the withdrawal of Syrian
troops from Lebanon. Amid domestic and international
pressure, Damascus did pull out its troops from Lebanon in April, ending nearly
three decades of military presence in its smaller neighbour.
Tueni comes from a long line of prominent Lebanese politicians, many of
whom had a close call with death in Lebanon's troubled political scene.
His uncle Marwan Hamade escaped an assassination attempt in October 2004
while his father Ghassan Tueni was a former Lebanese ambassador at the United
Nations who also served in the government and in parliament.
Hamade, who is Telecommunications Minister, visited the scene of the
bombing on Monday and described the MP as the "last martyr of Lebanon's
independence and sovereignty". He called for an international inquiry "on all
the crimes committed by the Syrian regime for decades in Lebanon."
In June, Tueni, a Greek Orthodox, won a seat in parliamentary elections -- the
first since Syria quit Lebanon -- running on the list of Saad Hariri, which
swept the polls.
As a journalist, he made the daily An-Nahar a veritable tribunal against the
Syrian regime, for the defence of Lebanon's democratic sovereignty, and for
human rights. He was one of the leaders of the "Cedar
Revolution" which followed the murder of Hariri and, with international
pressure, led to the Syrian pullout.
Tueni was a passionate advocate of the creation of an international tribunal
over Rafiq Hariri's killing in light of the international probe commissioned by
the United Nations.
He is widely seen as having set the tone against Syrian control over Lebanon in
an editorial published in his mass-circulation newspaper as early as March 2000
that made the unprecedented blunt request for Syria to end its domination.
In more recent editorials over the past months Tueni has insisted on Lebanon's
independence and strongly criticised Syrian policies, particularly towards
Lebanon. Married twice, Gibran Tueni was father of
four girls, including twin daughters born just a few months ago. His eldest
daughter is a journalist with An-Nahar where he had been director and which his
grandfather founded in 1932. Tueni's mother, Nadia Hamade Tueni, wrote several
poetry collections in French, but died while still young. His father, Ghassan
Tueni, was a well known editorialist and several times a minister and MP.
Tall, with a slim black moustache, Gibran Tueni was an elegant figure on the
Lebanese political scene and was a redoubtable debater.
He was revered by many of Lebanon's young people who thronged conferences
which he held -- depite the presence of Syrian troops -- in favour of his
country's independence, and to whom he opened the columns of his newspaper.
A former member of the Lebanese Forces militia leadership, he became a fervent
supporter of general Michel Aoun who in 1989 called for a "war of liberation
against the Syrian occupier".
More recently, Tueni took part in setting up the Qornet Shahwan, a grouping of
anti-Syrian Christian figures under the leadership of Maronite Patriarch
Nasrallah Sfeir. The blast that killed Tueni took
place one day after the head of the UN panel probing the killing of Rafiq Hariri
presented his findings to UN chief Kofi Annan. Later
on Monday, the UN Security Council was due to receive the sensitive report from
German magistrate Detlev Mehlis on Syria's cooperation with the probe into the
murder of the Lebanese ex-premier.
Another anti-Syria MP and journalist slain
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- A Lebanese anti-Syrian parliament member and
three others were killed Monday when an explosion ripped through the
legislator's armored car outside Beirut. Jibran Tueni, one of Syria's most
outspoken opponents and director-general of Lebanon's leading an-Nahar daily,
bold in its opposition to the Syrian control of Lebanon, was killed instantly in
the blast in Mikaless, a mountainous area east of Beirut. Three other people
were killed and ten injured in the explosion, which eyewitnesses said charred
and disfigured the victims beyond recognition. There was no immediate
information if the blast resulted from a car bomb parked on the side of the
road.
Commenting on the assassination, the fourth since a massive blast killed former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, Druze leader and head of the
anti-Syria opposition in Lebanon, Waleed Jumblat, said: "Thank you, we have
received the message." Accusing Syria of carrying out Monday's assassination,
Jumblat added that the "head of the neighboring security regime yesterday
threatened that the stability in the region will be shaken if sanctions are
imposed on Syria, and today we received the message." Tueni, 48, is the third
anti-Syrian Lebanese journalist to be targeted in the past six months, in which
another an-Nahar writer, Samir Kassir, was killed, and television anchorwoman
May Chidiac was seriously injured in separate blasts. Communications Minister
Marwan Hamadeh, Tueni's uncle who also escaped an attempt on his life 14 months
ago, threatened that the Democratic Gathering bloc will pullout from the
government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora unless the government asked the
Security Council to extend an international inquiry into Hariri's assassination
to all other assassinations and attempts that occurred in Lebanon since October
2004.
LEBANON: 200 KG OF TNT USED IN BLAST THAT KILLED
TUENI
Lebanon, 12 Dec. (AKI) - Lebanese police sources say some 200 kilograms of the
explosive TNT concealed in a parked car were used in the blast on Monday that
killed four people, including prominent anti-Syrian parliamentarian and
journalist, Gebran Tueni. A police source speaking on condition of anonymity
told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the technique used in the attack was
similar to that which killed former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri in February.
Hariri and 20 others died after a bomb was detonated in a Beirut suburb as the
former premier's motorcade passed by.
Monday's blast happened on a busy road in the largely Christian industrial
suburb of Mekallis in the east of the city.
Reacting to the news of Tueni's killing, another MP, Walid Jumblatt, the leader
of Lebanon's Druze minority, accused Syria of being behind the blast.
Tueni was an outspoken critic of Syria and had previously said he
believed he was on a Syrian hitlist. Married with four daughters, the
48-year-old MP was also general manager and editorialist for the daily newspaper
An-Nahar and appeared regularly on radio and television programmes in Lebanon.
The attack is the latest in a series of car bombs targeting anti-Syrian
MPs and journalists. In June, journalist Samir Kassir and the former leader of
the Lebanese Communist Party, George Hawi, died in similar attacks, while
another car bomb in September left TV journalist May Shidiaq, 40, badly injured.
The explosion comes on the day the latest findings by the team
investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri on 14
February this year, are due to be presented to the UN Security Council in New
York.
(Lto/Aki)12-Dec-05 11:32
More than 10 injured in Lebanon explosion
date: 12 12, 2005
Beirut, Dec. 12 (BNA) More than 10 persons injured including two in critical
stages in an explosion that took place in Al Moklas Industrial area in Lebanon
today. LBC TV said today that the explosion occurred because of a booby -
trapped car in an area full of factories and publication houses. The explosion
caused shattering of glass in the streets while heavy black smokes was seen
covering the area. The TV added that this explosion targeted one of the Lebanese
official. Security teams rushed to the area to carry injuries to hospitals.
MP Tueni targeted in Beirut blast
By Mayssam Zaaroura - Daily Star
staff
Monday, December 12, 2005
BEIRUT - Anti-Syrian journalist and prominent lawmaker Gebran Tueni was killed
by a car bomb Monday, a day after he returned from France, where he had been
staying periodically for fear of assassination.
Tueni's uncle, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamade, and the leading
Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt blamed Syria for the bombing _ a charge that
Syria promptly denied. Police said Tueni was one of
three people killed when a car bomb exploded as his motorcade drove through the
industrial suburb of Mkalles. Another 30 people were wounded in the bombing,
which started a large fire.
"God have mercy on Gebran and An-Nahar will remain the beacon for freedom,"
Jumblatt told LBC television, referring to An-Nahar newspaper of which Tueni was
the general manager.
Hamade threatened to withdraw from the Cabinet with two colleagues if the
government did not demand a U.N. investigation into the continuing series of
bombings. He said there must be an international tribunal to "investigate the
continuing crimes of the Syrian regime." Syrian Information Minister Mehdi
Dakhlallah denied his government was involved, telling LBC television: "Those
who are behind this are the enemies of Lebanon."
Tueni, 48, had only returned to Lebanon on Sunday from Paris, where he has been
staying most of the past few months out of fear for his safety.
CHRONOLOGY-Political assassinations in Lebanon
12 Dec 2005 10:40:38 GMT
Dec 12 (Reuters) - A car bomb explosion killed Gebran Tueni, a staunchly
anti-Syrian member of parliament and Lebanese newspaper magnate, in Beirut on
Monday, police said. Here is a short chronology of
major political assassinations in Lebanon over the past three decades.
Feb, 1975 - Sunni Muslim leftist politician Maarouf Saad is shot dead during a
demonstration in Sidon. His death helped trigger Lebanon's civil war that began
in April.
March 1977 - Druze and leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt is killed in ambush in his
Shouf mountain fiefdom in central Lebanon. His son Walid has accused Syria of
responsibility.
June 1978 - Tony Franjieh, son of former President Suleiman Franjieh, is
assassinated in raid by Christian militia rivals at his home in Ehden, north
Lebanon.
Sept 1982 - Bashir Gemayel, elected president, is killed before taking office by
a bomb planted by a pro-Syrian Christian. His brother Amin becomes president.
June 1987 - Lebanon's veteran Prime Minister Rashid Karami is killed by a bomb
in an army helicopter in Tripoli. Karami was serving his ninth term as prime
minister in a 37-year career.
May 1989 - Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, religious head of Lebanon's Sunni
community, is killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
Nov 1989 - President Rene Muawad is killed in a huge bomb explosion in Beirut.
Muawad, a Syrian-backed Maronite Christian, had been elected less than three
weeks earlier.
Oct 1990 - Gunmen kill Dany Chamoun, chairman of the National Liberal Party and
former Christian militia leader, in Christian suburb of Beirut.
Feb 1992 - Israelis kill Abbas Mussawi, leader of Shi'ite Hizbollah militia, in
helicopter ambush of his convoy near village of Jibsheet in south Lebanon.
Jan 2002 - Elie Hobeika, former minister and leader of pro-Israeli Christian
militia involved in 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, is killed
in Beirut.
May 2002 - Mohammad Jihad Ahmed Jibril, son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command (PFLP-GC), is killed in
car bomb in Beirut.
Feb 2005 - Huge car bomb kills Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri
on Beirut's waterfront.
Dec 2005 - Car bomb explosion kills Gebran Tueni, a staunchly anti-Syrian member
of parliament, in Beirut. Three other people died and 10 were wounded in the
blast.
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Syria says Lebanon blast aimed at damaging Damascus
DAMASCUS, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Syria said that the timing of a blast that took
place in Beirut on Monday indicated an intention to damage the reputation of
Damascus.
In a statement carried by the official news agency, Syria denounced the "bombing
that took place in the Mekalis suburb of Beirut ... whose timing is intended to
direct accusations to Syria
Jumblatt accuses Syria of being behind deadly blast
POL-LEBANON-JUMBLATT
Jumblatt accuses Syria of being behind deadly blast
(WITH MIL-LEBANON-BLAST SERIES) BEIRUT, Dec 12 (KUNA) -- Durze leader and MP
Walid Jumblatt on Monday accused Syria of being behind the blast that killed the
prominent Lebanese journalist Jibran Tweini and wounded 10 others. "The message
of terrorism has arrived .." Jumblatt said indicating at the identical killing
of the former prime minister Rafic Al-Hariri, the botched bids to kill Minister
of Transports Marwan Hamadeh and Defense Minister Elias Al-Murr.
"The message is clear because someone told the Russian television that the
imposition of sanctions on Syria will distabilize the region," he said, alluding
to a fresh statement by President Bashar Al-Assad to the television.He
reiterated the call for establishing an international tribunal to prosecute
suspects of the assassination of Al-Hariri.
Anti-Syrian Journalist Killed in Lebanon
12.12.2005, AP
A car bomb Monday killed journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni, the latest in a
string of assassinations of anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon. A previously unknown
group claimed responsibility for the blast, but many quickly accused Damascus in
the slaying.
Syria denied being behind the blast, which came on the day that the U.N.
Security Council was due to receive a U.N. inquiry's report into the
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in which Syrian
officials have been implicated.
Churchbells tolled and men wept in the street over the loss of the lead
columnist and manager of Lebanon's most respected newspaper, An-Nahar. Tueni
played a major role in the wave of protests that followed Hariri's death and
helped force Syria to withdrawal its troops from Lebanon in April.
"My God, Gibran, you were the only one who told the truth!" shouted one man,
weeping at the scene of the bombing.
A previously unknown group - "The Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom in
al-Sham," Arabic for historic Greater Syria - claimed responsibility in a
statement faxed to media outlets in Beirut. "We have broken the pen of Gibran
Tueni and gagged his mouth forever, turning An-Nahar into a dark night," it
said. "An-Nahar" is Arabic for day. "He who contemplates attacking those who
have sacrificed everything for the sake of Arabism and Lebanon will face the
same fate as ... Tueni."
The statement's authenticity could not be independently confirmed. The blast hit
Tueni, 48, a day after he returned from France, where he had been staying
periodically for fear of assassination.
A parked car packed with an estimated 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of TNT exploded
as Tueni's motorcade passed in the hilly industrial suburb of Mkalles, flinging
his armor-plated vehicle and several other cars into a ravine. Tueni, his driver
and a passer-by were killed. Another 30 people were wounded in the bombing,
which shattered nearby store windows and started a fire that destroyed at least
10 vehicles.
Tueni is the fourth prominent anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon to have been killed
in a string of 14 bombings in Lebanon that began with the Feb. 14 blast that
killed Hariri and 20 other people. Also killed in the series of bombings were
Samir Kassir, a prominent An-Nahar journalist, and anti-Syrian politician George
Hawi. In September, a bomb maimed an anchorwoman of the leading anti-Syrian TV
station LBC.
Tueni, a Christian, had championed the U.N. investigation into Hariri's slaying,
which has focused on Syrian officials and their allies in Lebanon. Prime
Minister Fuad Saniora called an emergency meeting of top security officials and
the Cabinet.
Even Tueni's political enemies, like the militant Hezbollah Shiite Muslim group,
lauded him as "prominent journalist and well-known politician." Pro-Syrian
President Emile Lahoud, a frequent target of Tueni's verbal assaults, described
the slain journalist as "one of the symbols of freedom in Lebanon."
At the offices of An-Nahar, staff with tears in their eyes received diplomats
and others who came to give their condolences. Several hundred students, many of
them students, gathered outside the offices in downtown Beirut, waving Lebanese
and their party flags.
In the Christian quarter of Ashrafieh, Tueni's constituency, orthodox churches
tolled their bells as his body was brought to a hospital. Leading Lebanese
politician Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh,
Tueni's uncle, blamed Syria for the bombing. Jumblatt said it was intended to
silence those pushing to expose the assassins of Hariri. "God have mercy on
Gibran and An-Nahar will remain the beacon for freedom," Jumblatt told LBC
television. "This is a new terrorism message," he said of the bombing.
Hamadeh threatened to withdraw from the Cabinet with two colleagues if the
government did not demand a U.N. investigation into the continuing series of
bombings. He said there must be an international tribunal to "investigate the
continuing crimes of the Syrian regime."
"May God have mercy on the latest of the martyrs for Lebanon's independence and
sovereignty in the face of the dictatorial hegemony of (Syrian President) Bashar
Assad," Hamadeh was quoted as saying by the official National News Agency. "We
say it out loud: if (the Syrians) want it this way, we know how to respond," he
added, without elaborating.
Hamadeh himself survived with injuries a car bombing in October 2004 that also
killed his driver. He blamed Syria.
Syrian Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah denied his government was involved,
telling LBC television: "Those who are behind this are the enemies of Lebanon."
The U.S. Embassy condemned the "heinous act." In a statement, it said the
"forces of opporession and tyranny have taken from the Lebanese people one of
their greatest champions for liberty and freedom."
Tueni's columns in An-Nahar often raised the ire of Syria. He was elected to
parliament for the first time in the elections of May and June, when anti-Syrian
politicians wrested the government away from Damascus' allies, who had dominated
it during Syria's 29-year military presence in Lebanon.
Detlev Mehlis, the head of the U.N. team investigating Hariri's slaying,
presented his second report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday. It
was expected to be released to the press Monday after the Security Council has
received it. Syria denies involvement in the killing of Hariri. It has waged a
campaign to discredit the commission since an interim report in October accused
the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence agencies of complicitiy.
Tueni's grandfather, Gibran Tueni, founded An-Nahar. His father Ghassan Tueni is
considered the dean of the Lebanese press, having turned the newspaper into an
institution respected by friend and foe across the Arab world.
Car bombs in Beirut again, journalist Gibran Tueni
killed
by Youssef Hourani -12 December, 2005
Damascus is accused of the death of the Christian editor of an-Nahar, Beirut’s
leading Arabic-language newspaper, on the day the Mehlis report is presented to
the UN Secuirty Council.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – A car bomb (perhaps two) exploded at 9 am in Beirut today
killing Gibran Tueni, 52, a Christian anti-Syrian lawmaker and managing editor
of the Beirut daily an-Nahar. According to early reports, three other people
were killed and at least 15 injured, two seriously.
The attack, which took place in the Christian-dominated suburb of Mekalis,
follows the June murder of Samir Kassir, another an-Nahar journalist, and the
September 25 attempted murder of TV journalist May Chidiac, who lost and arm and
the left leg when a bomb placed under her car blew up.
Son of a former Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, Gibran Tueni was born
in Beirut in 1957 in a Greek-Orthodox family. Twice married with four daughters,
he was the managing editor of an-Nahar, Beirut’s leading Arabic-language daily
founded by his grand father Gibran in 1930. He was elected to Lebanon’s National
Assembly for the party of Saad Hariri, son of assassinated former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri.
As soon as the news of the attack became public knowledge, groups of
demonstrators gathered in front of the an-Nahar’s offices, near the National
Assembly in downtown Beirut, to denounce the latest outrage against the
country’s free voices.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called a special meeting of the cabinet
for this afternoon. Some speculate that the government might resign.
Both on the streets and among political leaders, there is a strong conviction
that the attack must be linked to the report of inquiry into the assassination
of Rafik Hariri, which Detlev Mehlis is scheduled to present today to the
15-member United Nations Security Council. The Council has 24 hours to examine
the report before taking any possible sanctions against Syria.
The report is said to accuse Syrian secret services of being behind the attack
that killed Rafik Hariri last February when Syria still occupied Lebanon.
The report’s charges should reach Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since his
brother-in-law General Asef Shawkat is directly implicated in the affair as head
of Syrian secret services in Lebanon.
Bur for weeks now, Syria’s state-controlled press has attacked the UN commission
of inquiry. Syria’s president has warned that sanctions against his country
would destabilise the Middle East and the entire world. Every military or
political error in the region would precipitate it into chaos, he said.
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Nagib Mikati is convinced there is a link between
Syria and the latest attack. But for his part, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt noted
that the destabilisation of the region as Syrian president predicted has already
begun. In his view, the Tueni murder is a new terrorist message like those of
Rafik Hariri, Samir Kassir and George Hawi.
Lawmaker Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of General Michel Aoun’s parliamentary caucus,
said this criminal act was part of a violent series that began on February 14
with the Hariri’s murder. He condemned the latest killing on behalf of his
group.
Officially, Syria has also condemned the attack rejecting any allegations that
it was involved. In a statement carried by its official news agency SANA, it
denounced the "bombing that took place in the Mekalis suburb of Beirut . . .
whose timing is intended to direct accusations to Syria.” The communiqué went to
condemn all murderers and explosions stressing that their instigators are
enemies of Lebanon.
As soon as he was informed of the event, Maronite Patriarch Card Nassrallah
Sfeir cancelled all of today’s engagements and called on everyone to fervently
pray for peace in Lebanon.
Mgr Elias Awde, metropolitan of Beirut, who visited the site of the blast,
expressed to AsiaNews his sorrow for the loss of Gibran Tueni, considered one of
the young activists who contributed to the liberation of Lebanon from Syrian
occupation.
Gisele Kassir, widow of slain journalist Samir Kassir, also expressed her sorrow
to AsiaNews. Although she did not point any fingers at anyone, she did take part
in a demonstration by the youth wing of the Lebanese Forces and Walid Jumblatt’s
Socialist Party.
Reporters without Borders
Press release/Communiqués de presse
Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:07:49 +0100
To: From: "RSF Moyen-Orient / Middle-East" <moyen-orient@rsf.org>
Subject: LEBANON : Shock at murder Gebran Tueni, parliamentarian and owner of
An-Nahar daily/ LIBAN: LIBAN Reporters sans frontières sous le choc de
l'assassinat de Gebrane Tuéni , député et patron d'An-Nahar
English/Français
Shock at murder Gebran Tueni, parliamentarian and owner of An-Nahar daily
Reporters Without Borders said it was deeply shocked and saddened by the murder
of Gebran Tueni, the CEO of the Arabic-language daily An-Nahar and a member of
the Lebanese parliament, in a car-bomb explosion today in Beirut.
"The murderers seem to stop at nothing," the press freedom organisation said.
"The loss of another of Lebanon's leading journalists follows Samir Kassir's
death in a car-bombing in June and the maiming of May Chidiac in a bombing in
September. We join Tueni's family and the staff of An-Nahar in voicing our grief
and anger. We will keep pressing for the truth about this murder until those
responsible are identified and punished."
Reporters Without Borders added: "While we hail the United Nations' efforts to
curb the violence in Lebanon, we think it now may be necessary to go further and
establish an international commission of enquiry into all the bombings and
attacks that have targeted politicians and journalists. If nothing is done, more
are bound to follow. Today's bombing seems to be provocation, coming as it does
on the eve of the presentation of a new interim report by Mehlis commission in
New York."
Police said at least four people were killed and ten others wounded, two them
seriously, in today's bombing in Mansourieh, a Christian suburb of Beirut, in
which Tueni was clearly the target. A police officer said that a "red car parked
at the side of a road in the locality of Mekalis exploded, sending a car into a
ravine and causing it to catch fire."
Tueni was elected as a parliamentary representative for Beirut in June.
--------------------------------------------------------------
LIBAN
Reporters sans frontières sous le choc de l'assassinat de Gebrane Tuéni, député
et patron d'An-Nahar
Reporters sans frontières est horrifiée et profondément attristée par
l'assassinat de Gebrane Tuéni, PDG du quotidien arabophone An-Nahar et député
libanais, le 12 décembre 2005.
"La détermination des assassins n'a aucune limite. Après Samir Kassir, tué en
juin, et May Chidiac, grièvement blessée en septembre 2005, le Liban a perdu
aujourd'hui l'une de ses plus grandes figures du journalisme. Aux côtés de sa
famille et de toute l'équipe d'An-Nahar, nous voulons exprimer notre peine et
notre colère. Nous n'aurons de cesse d'exiger la vérité dans cette affaire afin
que les assassins soient identifiés et punis", a déclaré l'organisation.
"Nous saluons les efforts déployés par les Nations unies pour tenter d'endiguer
la violence qui sévit au Liban, mais peut-être qu'aujourd'hui il faut aller plus
loin et mettre en place une commission d'enquête internationale sur l'ensemble
des attentats qui ont visé des responsables politiques et des journalistes. Si
rien n'est fait, il y en aura certainement d'autres. A la veille de la
présentation à New York d'un nouveau rapport intermédiaire de la commission
Mehlis, cet attentat sonne comme une provocation," a ajouté Reporters sans
frontières.
Gebrane Tuéni, qui était aussi député de Beyrouth depuis juin 2005, a été visé
lundi matin par une attaque à la voiture piégée à Mkalles, banlieue chrétienne
de la capitale. Au moins quatre personnes ont été tuées et dix autres blessées,
dont deux grièvement, selon la police.
Un officier de police a indiqué qu'une "voiture rouge, garée au bord d'une route
de la localité de Mkallés, a explosé, projetant la voiture, qui a pris feu, dans
un ravin".
--
Maghreb & Middle-East Desk
Lynn TEHINI
Reporters Without Borders
5 rue Geoffroy-Marie
F - 75009 Paris
33 1 44 83 84 84
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
middle-east@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
Gebran Tueni Perishes in Massive Car Bomb Explosion
Near Beirut
Nahar 12/12/05: Gebran Tueni, a fiery critic of Syria, was assassinated in a
car-bomb explosion in Mkalles, east of Beirut Monday. He was 48.
Tueni was An Nahar’s general manager and Beirut legislator.
"God have mercy on Gebran and An-Nahar will remain the beacon for freedom,"
Druze leader Walid Jumblat told LBCI.
Three people, including Tueni, were killed in the explosion that went off at
approximately 9 am in Mkalles, media reports said. They said the blast went off
as his motorcade drove through the area.
Around 30 people were wounded in the bombing which also started a large fire. At
least 10 cars were destroyed, some tossed into a valley in the hilly area, the
Associated Press reported.
"This is a new terrorism message," Jumblat said of the killing, which follows a
series of subsequent bombings that have targeted mainly anti-Syrian officials in
the past year.
At the scene Tueni's wife was in tears and refused to answer when asked by a
reporter whether her husband was hurt.
Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who is also Gebran's uncle,
threatened to resign if the cabinet did not meet by Monday evening "to demand an
inquiry under the supervision of the Security Council on all the crimes
committed by Syria."
Hamadeh was also targeted on October 1, 2004 in a failed assassination attempt.
An outspoken critic of Syria's role in Lebanon, Tueni had recently been living
in France for fear of assassination. His columns in An-Nahar often raised the
ire of the Syrians.
After ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, Tueni played a prominent role in
the leadership of the mass demonstrations that, combined with international
pressure, succeeded in forcing Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in
April, ending a 29-year hegemony. He was elected to parliament for the first
time in the last elections in June.
Tueni's grandfather, Gebran Tueni, founded An-Nahar. His father Ghassan Tueni is
considered the dean of the Lebanese press, having turned the newspaper into one
of the leading media institutions in the Arab world.
He is survived by his wife, Siham Asseily and his four daughters Nayla,
Michelle, Gabriella and Nadia.