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    Lebanese political leader. Chamoun held a variety of governmental posts before serving as president of Lebanon [1952-58]. A Maronite Christian, Chamoun was opposed by Muslim leaders who disliked his pro-Western policies. The Muslim groups openly rebelled against Chamoun's government in 1958, and, in response to Chamoun's request for help, U.S. marines were sent to support the government. After defending the Lebanese against Syria in the 1975 civil war, he held a succession of ministerial appointments.

    A French schooled lawyer, Camille Chamoun held several positions of authority and represented his country at the United Nations and at the Court of St. James as the ambassador to the United Kingdom before becoming President in 1952. He was elected deputy in 1934, 1937, 1943, 1947, 1951, 1960, and 1968, and only lost one campaign, that of 1964. He Founded the Lebanese National Liberal Party, 1958 and was head of the Lebanese Front 1974-1978.

    Highly nationalistic, Chamoun was viewed as a symbol of Lebanon's sovereignty and prevented a pan-Arab communist take over of Lebanon in 1958. At the outbreak of war in 1975, Chamoun led the effort to expel from Lebanon all non Lebanese armed forces that by then had become a serious threat.

    Son of the former president Camille Chamoun. Dany was the founder of the Ahrar Tiger militia and head of the Lebanese National Liberal Party after his father. He was born on 26th August 1934 in Dier el-Qamar. In 1975 he was appointed Secretary of Defense of the National Liberal Party. From 1983 to 1985 he was the General Secretary of the party and in 1988 President of the Lebanese Front. Dany Chamoun opposed Syria's presence in Lebanon and supported General Michel Aoun's War of Liberation. Dany was assassinated with his wife and two boys, on Sunday 21st October, 1990.

    The murder of Dany, 56, his German-born second wife Ingrid, 45, and their two sons, Tarek, 7, 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.

    Maronite Christian family active in Lebanese politics; leaders of the Phalange party [1937-82], and later the Phalange militia. Pierre Gemayel, 1905-84, founded the right-wing Phalange movement in the early 1930s. In 1937 he became leader of the official Phalange party, representing Lebanon's large Maronite community. Pierre was elected to parliament in 1960 and was defeated twice [1964, 1970] when he ran for the presidency. He became head of the Phalange militia, which formed as a result of the civil war that erupted [1975] among the many religious and ethnic groups in Lebanon. Bashir Gemayel, 1947-82, Pierre's younger son, was the militant leader of Phalange forces in the late 1970s, and he reinforced Maronite power. In 1980 he assumed control of the Phalange party.

    Under controversial circumstances, Bashir was elected in Sept., 1982, as Lebanon's next president; less than two weeks later he was assassinated. He was replaced by his older brother, Amin Gemayel, a lawyer, businessman, and member of the Lebanese parliament from 1970. Far less radical than the other members of his family and with no real authority, Amin provided weak leadership until his presidential term ended in 1988. With parliament deadlocked over his successor, Gemayel appointed Gen. Michel Aoun interim president, an act that led to two years of warfare and political instability.

    Michel was born in Harat Hurayk, was the prime minister of Lebanon [1988-1990] and the general who had commanded the Lebanese Army from the mid 1980s. Aoun was a highly respected officer and the men under his command were extremely loyal to him.

    Aoun showed promise as a young officer and progressed quickly throughout the ranks. He trained as an artillery officer at Fort Sill in the United States and at the French military college of Chalons-sur-Marne, by the early 1980s Aoun began to get noticed and was forging a outstanding reputation.

    During the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, as the Israeli Army approached the Presidential Palace, Aoun tried to halt their advance, he and his troops squared off against the Israelis. Only direct intervention from the president prevented the two forces from engaging each other.

    In 1983 Aoun was commander of the Army's 8th Brigade and was responsible for the bitter defence of Souk el Gharb which was assaulted by Syria and her allies.
By 1984 he had risen to the rank of Brigadier General.

    In 1988 Aoun became prime minister of an interim government, he proceeded to crack down on the various militia groups in the country and waged a 'War of Liberation' against the Syrian Army in Lebanon. He also demand that the Israelis withdraw. The scale of  his public support and popularity across the board had never been experienced before in Lebanon. For a number of months tens of thousands of people would take to the streets in public shows of support, this became widely known as the 'Aoun Phenomenon'.

    Aoun enforced a maritime blockade of illegal ports run by Syrian-allied Druze and Shi'ite militias in West Beirut. When the Syrians responded by shelling civilian areas of East Beirut, Aoun declared war on Syria's occupation forces on March 14, 1989. "The question is no longer one of ports," he proclaimed, " ...we have passed this and defined the ceiling--Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon." The Syrian and Lebanese armies clashed intermittently over the next six months amid fruitless mediation efforts by the Arab League, destroying much of Beirut and instigating an exodus of over one million inhabitants from the city.

    Despite the enormous destruction visited upon the inhabitants of the 300-square mile enclave controlled by his forces, popular support for Aoun's war against the Syrian military skyrocketed. 'The Washington Post' eloquently captured the revolutionary spirit prevailing in East Beirut and across the country:

    Despite his continuing popular support within Lebanon, however, outside developments doomed Aoun's "revolution" to failure. After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the American government desperately sought Syria's participation in the U.S.-led coalition against Baghdad. In return for Syrian support, the Bush administration gave Syria a green light to complete its conquest of Lebanon.

    On the morning of October 13, 1990, Syrian air and ground forces launched an all-out invasion of East Beirut and the surrounding areas controlled by Aoun's government. An advisor to President Hrawi later paraphrased the U.S. message as follows:

    Realizing that further resistance would only lead to needless loss of life, Aoun went to the French embassy to negotiate a cease-fire under French auspices. As the scale of massacres and mayhem escalated and the presidential palace fell into the hands of the Syrians, Aoun accepted the French ambassador's offer of political asylum. Declaring that Aoun's safety was a "matter of honor," French President Francois Mitterand negotiated the beleaguered general's departure for exile in France ten months later.

    Despite his continuing exile in France, Aoun has remained the country's most prominent opposition figure. Although support for Aoun is most visible within the Christian community, where criticism of the Syrian occupation is less taboo, he has also retained considerable popularity among Lebanese Muslims in the decade following his ouster. According to a 1996 study by Judith Palmer Harik of the American University of Beirut, Aoun ranked third among Shi'ite respondents asked to name their most preferred Lebanese leader in an open-ended survey. In light of the high religiosity of the Shi'ite community, it is not surprising that two prominent and influential clerical leaders ranked above Aoun. What is surprising is that Aoun ranked above Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the country's leading Shi'ite politician.

    Until recently, Aoun's followers in Lebanon neglected to establish a highly-structured organization, in part to escape persecution by Syrian and Lebanese intelligence. Around 4,000 "Aounists" have been arrested and detained since 1990. In recent years, as the scale of persecution gradually declined, the movement became consolidated as the Free National Current [(Al-Tayyar al-Watani al-Hurr]. The FNC has become particularly active in professional and academic circles, counting over 600 teachers, 730 engineers, 300 lawyers and 250 dentists among its members. Since April of last year, the FNC has organized numerous demonstrations drawing thousands of Lebanese into the streets. In addition, FNC student activists have launched a highly successful campaign to protest the continuing presence of nearly 1 million Syrian workers in the country by performing menial labor tasks typically done by Syrians laborers.