Murder of Dany Chamoun Marks End of an Era

By Maha Sanzara

The murder of Lebanese Maronite leader Dany Chamoun, 56, his German-born second wife Ingrid, 45, and their two sons, Tarek, 10, and Julian, 5, and the wounding of their infant daughter was one of the most brutal in a long series of political assassinations in Lebanon. It also inaugurated the era of Syrian-controlled security in East Beirut. The death of the leader of the Liberal Party, youngest son of the late President Camille Chamoun, was interpreted by militia leaders on both sides of the demolished Green Line as a Mafia-style message, a lesson for Lebanon's other political strongmen and militia chiefs to toe the line or else face physical elimination. All remaining Lebanese militia leaders have subsequently accepted the Syrian "offer" to remove their forces from Beirut and set up shop in the hinterlands controlled by their own confessional groups.

Chamoun was a strong ally of General Aoun in the past year's fighting, an outspoken critic of the Taif agreement which divides political power equally between Lebanon's Christians and Muslims, and an ardent opponent of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. He was known for contacts with Israel, and the Chamoun clan were patrons of the security arrangements in southern Lebanon. Dany Chamoun and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt were said to be cooperating quietly to revive the Druze Maronite understandings, which once regulated competition between rival clans in Mount Lebanon, to rescue the area from foreign rule.

Major clan sectarian and political leaders assassinated during Lebanon's 15-year travail include Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt, Maronite Christian President Bashir Gemayel, Sunni Mufti Hassan Khaled, Maronite Deputy Tony Frangieh (only son of former President Suleiman Franjieh) and the younger Frangieh's wife and daughter, Sunni former Prime Minister Rashid Karami, president of the journalist's syndicate Riad Taha, publisher Salim Lozy and many others.

The Chamoun clan "Tigers" militia was eliminated as a major player earlier in Lebanon's civil war by rival Maronite forces. The death of Dany Chamoun now apparently brings an end to the political role of the Chamouns, once one of the most powerful feudal families in Lebanon.

Maha Samara is a Lebanese journalist presently based in Washington, DC