Dany Chamoun

Dany Chamoun داني شمعون
File:Dany Chamoun.jpg Dany Chamoun wearing a shirt with the Tiger's Militia logo.
Personal details
Born	(1934-08-26)26 August 1934 Deir el Qamar, Lebanon
Died	Assassinated on Oct. 21st 1990 Beirut
Political party	National Liberal Party

Dany Chamoun (Arabic: داني شمعون) (August 26, 1934 – October 21, 1990) was a prominent Lebanese politician. A Maronite Christian and the younger son of former President Camille Chamoun, Dany Chamoun was also a politician in his own right, and was known for his opposition to the occupation of Lebanese territory by foreign forces, whether Syrian or Israeli.

Biography

Dany Chamoun was born at Deir el-Qamar. He became the National Liberal Party Secretary of Defense in January 1976, after the death of its predecessor Naim Berdkan. As Supreme Commander of the NLP's military wing, the Tigers, he also played a major role in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War.

In 1976, the NLP Tigers under Dany's command along with the Phalangist Kataeb Regulatory Forces, Al-Tanzim and Guardians of the Cedars formed a joined militia command under the name Lebanese Forces.

By 1980, the Phalangist-dominated Lebanese Forces were under the command of Bashir Gemayel. Rivalry began to arise between Bashir and Dany. Dany's Tigers were eliminated as a military force in a massacre perpetrated on July 7, 1980 by the rival Phalangists. Chamoun's life was spared and he fled to the Muslim-dominated West Beirut. He temporarily quit politics.

Chamoun was a supporter of the nationalist Christian cause at heart, however, and he soon returned to the cause to which he, like his father, had dedicated his life. He served as General Secretary of the National Liberal Party from 1983 to 1985, when he replaced his father as the party leader. In 1988, he became President of the revived Lebanese Front - a coalition of nationalist and mainly Christian parties and politicians that his father had helped to found. The same year, he announced his candidacy for the Presidency of Lebanon to succeed Amine Gemayel (Bashir's brother), but Syria (which by this time occupied some 70 percent of Lebanese territory) vetoed his candidacy.

Gemayel's term expired on 23 September 1988, without the election of a successor. Chamoun declared his strong support for General Michel Aoun, who had been appointed by the outgoing President to lead an interim administration and went on to lead one of two rival governments that contended for power over the next two years. He strongly opposed the Taif Agreement, which not only gave a greater share of power to the Muslim community than they had enjoyed previously, but more seriously, in Chamoun's opinion, formalized what he saw as the master-servant relationship between Syria and Lebanon, and refused to recognize the new government of President Elias Hrawi, who was elected under the Taif Agreement.

Assassination

On 21 October 1990, Chamoun, along with his German-born second wife Ingrid, and his two sons, Tarek (7) and Julian (5), were assassinated. Tamara Chamoun was able to hide in a closet with the housemaid during the assassination. In what is qualified as an "unfair trial" by several organizations such as Amnesty International, Samir Geagea, the rival Christian leader of the Lebanese Forces, was subsequently tried for the murder. The fairness of the trial was challenged by Chamoun's brother, Dory (Dany's older brother who replaced him as leader of the National Liberal Party) who declared publicly on 25 April 2005 that he believed Geagea to be innocent and demanded a new investigation to uncover the real assassins, whom he suspected of being Syrian agents.

Dany Chamoun has two surviving daughters, one of whom (Tracy) is a prominent human rights activist, who still accuses Geagea of having slaughtered her family.

See also

• Lebanese civil war
• Lebanese Front
• Lebanese Forces
• Tigers Militia (Lebanon)