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<DIV><STRONG><U>Lebanon’s Strong Advocate of Independence;
</U></STRONG><STRONG><U>Gebran Tueni Assassinated </U></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><EM>By Fatina Salaheddine</EM>
</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">November 2005</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">(Publisher; Al-Sahafa Newspaper
<A href="http://www.al-sahafa.us">www.al-sahafa.us</A>) <BR><BR>Lebanon endured
the loss of another fearless visionary on Dec. 12, 2005 when Parliament member
and veteran journalist Gibran Tueni was assassinated by a massive car bomb. The
list of martyrs in Lebanon continues to grow while the Lebanese await the
verdict of the murder that started it all, on Valentine’s Day February 14, 2005,
with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Sheikh Rafik Al-Hariri.
<BR><BR>You had to meet Gebran Tueni. He was a cross between the hard-hitting
journalists of legend and the courageous democratic politicians who do in fact
stand up in today's Middle East only to end up jailed, exiled or killed for
their beliefs. He played one of the leading roles in the democratic Cedar
Revolution that swept Lebanon this spring (March 14), and was elected this year
to the Lebanese Parliament. <BR><BR>I met Gebran Tueni in early Spring of 2003
in Doha Qatar. We had both been invited participants by the government of Qatar,
to Doha’s Forum on Democracy & Free Trade. A brisk, tall man with a neat
mustache, Tueni welcomed me to a seat beside him, during the crowded opening
session of the Conference, where the Emir of Qatar was about to begin his
speech. I can recall fondly how neither of us remembered anything from that
opening session, due to the constant whispering and note passing that we did
with each other. I was secretly so ecstatic in meeting Gebran Tueni that morning
(and later confessed to him), because months before, I had admired him on a
popular Lebanese Entertainment Show on LBC, called “Sa3 B urb El Habeeb”
(translation of show; “An hour in the Presence of Someone Dear”). Later on that
day, during the conference, Gebran Tueni introduced me to his Uncle Ali Hamaidi,
a prominent Lebanese Media personality. He was coordinating a special show for
Future Television, to feature some of the prominent attendees of the Doha
Conference, in discussing Middle East issues. It was soon afterwards, that
Gebran Tueni and I delved into a strong fascinating and journalistic friendship.
Many meetings in many international cities later, our bond of companionship and
trust grew. Then ubruptly, my treasured friendship was taken away from me, when
he was horrifically assassinated on the early morning of Dec. 12, 2005.
<BR><BR>In trying to maintain any form of sanity in dealing with the murder of
my friend Gebran Tueni, I have fixated my grief on all the good memories I feel
privileged to have shared with him. Even as I am typing this, it’s hard to choke
back the burning tears. My memory is constantly jogging from our many phone
conversations, to all the text messages and e-mails we exchanged – to my last
memory of physically seeing him in Paris. It was during my invitation at the
Four Seasons Hotel Paris, as guest of HRH Prince Alwaleed bin Tallal, (just
three weeks before his assassination), that I last met with Gebran Tueni. I have
to say, Gebran left a very deep and poignant mark on my mentality as a
journalist, and as an American of Lebanese descent. He constantly kept me
mentally stimulated on Lebanese, Middle East and U.S. affairs. It was always a
trial, where I had to present my case to “Judge” Gebran, when I was discussing
any story ideas for Al-Sahafa, or when pertinent Arab issues, were at the helm
of American Foreign Policy. He had a knack of fierceness when he discussed
politics. Any viewer could hear it in his voice during a television interview,
or even sense it in his writings in An-Nahar Newspaper. But all who knew him
personally, could see that this fierceness was fueled by the biggest heart of
gold, in his love for justice for the Lebanese and for his dear country of
Lebanon. <BR><BR>Tueni’s Life & Vision through An-Nahar Newspaper<BR>A
rooster being the logo of his newspaper, An-Nahar, an Arabic name which means,
"The Morning." Founded by Tueni's grandfather in the 1930s, and passed from
father to son for three generations, An-Nahar was for Gebran Tueni not only a
family business, but a vital trust. Seated behind his grandfather's desk,
speaking in fluent English, French and Arabic, he often explained that his aim
was to cover the full spectrum of Lebanese news and debate, to give voice to
"Muslims, Christians, leftists, rightists." "We try to have an independent
paper." <BR><BR>The sole heir of a line of journalists and politicians who had,
since the end of the Ottoman Empire, struggled to preserve the unique character
of Lebanon in the region, Tueni had recently established himself as a fearless,
intelligent and persistent champion of his country’s independence as a tiny but
democratic state conscious of its roots in the Crusader kingdoms of the Levant
in the 12th century, and an even older history in ancient Phoenicia. <BR><BR>He
and his family also championed communal tolerance in a tragically fractious
society. His father, Ghassan, a Greek Orthodox Christian, married a Druze, the
late poet Nadia Hamadeh, when such unions were rare, and his grandfather, also
Gebran, had founded the liberal newspaper An-Nahar in 1933 under the French
mandate to inspire the emerging nation with the ideals of the European
Enlightenment. Under their care, the paper has become what many observers regard
as perhaps the only credible daily journal published on Arab soil. Tueni himself
managed and edited it for the past decade, but he had previously been shaped by
it as much as it had been shaped by his family. <BR><BR>Gebran Ghassan Tueni was
born in 1957 when his father was both An-Nahar’s publisher and a member of
parliament, at times in government and at other times in prison. But amid the
risks and the excitement, young Gebran’s life as the elder son of the family was
both comfortable and inspiring. He spent time in France and, from 1977 to 1980,
obtained two degrees at the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme and the Ecole des
Hautes Etudes Internationales. But previously, at the start of the Lebanese
civil war in 1976, he had come close to dying. He was shot in the legs by
Palestinian gunmen and, a year later, abducted for 36 hours by right-wing
Christian militiamen. In 1987 the death of his sole surviving sibling, his
younger brother Makram, in a car accident in France made him the only heir to
the publishing house, as well as the only custodian of the family’s political
future. In 1990, when Syrian forces occupied Beirut and ended Prime Minister
Michel Aoun’s attempt to expel them from the country, Tueni fled to France and
established a political weekly, An-Nahar Arab and International. He also took
another degree, this time in management, from CEDEP-INSEAD in Fontainebleau. In
1993 he returned and joined An-Nahar as a journalist. This coexistence with the
Syrian occupation continued until March 2000, in the dying weeks of the former
President, Hafez al-Assad, when Tueni published an editorial calling on Syria to
withdraw its forces from Lebanon after 24 years, in the name of keeping its
peace. The daring outburst brought him to international prominence. <BR><BR>In
the wake of the assassination in February in Beirut of the former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri, Tueni played a central part in mobilizing the public’s
demonstration of grief and anger. In May 2005, he was elected to parliament for
the Greek Orthodox constituency in Beirut in alliance with Saad Hariri, the late
Prime Minister Hariri’s son, and Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader. However,
while the new coalition succeeded in forming a government, opposition to its
central strategy of making Lebanon completely free of Syrian influence continued
in the form of the incumbent President Emille Lahoud and the two Shia militias,
Hezbollah and Amal. In August Tueni fled to France once more. His name had been
found heading a list of more Lebanese figures to be eliminated, and in his
evidence to the UN commission investigating the Hariri murder, he testified that
the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri had told him he had been directly
threatened in Damascus by the new President Assad. Tueni also stated he received
"accurate" information that his name was on an assassination hit-list and had
spent much of his time abroad since then citing security fears. (Tueni’s uncle,
Druze Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, survived an assassination
attempt in a car bomb in 2004). <BR><BR>Gebran Tueni’s daughter, Nayla Tueni is
proof that Gibran is still alive and well. In her speech, the morning of the
funeral church service of her father she said: "I, Nayla, daughter of my father
Gibran, daughter of my grandfather Ghassan, daughter of my grandfather's father
Gibran, I, the daughter of Tueni, am the daughter of freedom. I am the daughter
of a martyr, and a martyr never dies...In the names of all those martyrs I
solemnly swear our freedom will never die...My father is not dead! He will live
through me. I will be the eye of the rooster [An Nahar symbol] which will follow
the murderer until the last grave, until we know the truth...An-Nahar will never
die, Lebanon will never die...My father always wanted to die for his country and
he did. I call upon you all never to forget the oath that he taught you on March
14." <BR><BR>I swear to God As a Muslim and a Christian To defend my dear
country ‘till the death And to stay united with my brethren (to stay muwahadeen)
Until my last days on earth Defending my great Lebanon (Al A3zeem)<BR>- Gebran
Tueni (March 14, 2005 – during Lebanon’s biggest Independence March in Downtown
Beirut. Marking one month exactly to the day of former Lebanese Prime Minister;
Sheikh Rafik Al Hariri’s assassination) <BR><BR>The Assassination<BR>A car bomb
killed Lebanese newspaper magnate lawmaker Gebran Tueni in Beirut, a day after
he returned from Paris, where he had based himself in recent months in fear of
assassination. Several Lebanese politicians immediately blamed Syria, which has
denied any role and said the killing was timed to smear it. Police said Tueni,
publisher of An-Nahar daily, was among three people killed in the explosion that
destroyed his armored sports utility vehicle as it was driving in the Mekalis
area of mainly Christian east Beirut. Some 32 people were wounded. The bodies of
Tueni, 48, his driver and a bodyguard were found in his car, charred beyond
recognition. Assault rifles and military bags laid beside them inside the
wrecked vehicle. A previously unknown group calling itself "Strugglers for the
Unity and Freedom of the Levant" claimed responsibility for the killing in a
statement faxed to Reuters, saying the same fate awaited other opponents of
"Arabism" in Lebanon. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim,
whose wording appeared designed to cast suspicion on Damascus. Security sources
said a parked car packed with up to 100 kg (220 pounds) of dynamite was
detonated by remote control as Tueni's car passed by. Tueni's car was hurled
from the road and landed in a different street, dozens of meters away. "I heard
a deafening explosion and when I looked up I saw a car flying in the air," one
passerby said. The blast set several cars ablaze and damaged nearby shops and
buildings. Police and soldiers cordoned off the area as rescue workers ferried
casualties to hospitals. Tueni was killed just hours before the U.N. Security
Council was due to receive a report by chief U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis,
who has been trying to identify those behind the February 14 assassination of
former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. <BR><BR>The Funeral<BR>Tens of
thousands of Lebanese bid farewell on Dec. 14, to publisher and lawmaker Gebran
Tueni, turning his funeral into an outpouring of anger. Tueni's assassination,
the third political murder since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was
killed in February of 2005, has caused serious political rifts in Lebanon,
bringing the government to the verge of collapse. Over 50,000 people, many
waving Lebanese flags, answered a call by Lebanese politicians for a large
turnout at Tueni's funeral. A group carried his flag-draped coffin on their
shoulders through the streets of central Beirut to the Greek Orthodox church
where an emotionally charged service was held. "I call on this occasion not for
revenge or hatred but for us to bury with Gebran all our hatreds and to call on
all Lebanese, Muslims and Christians, to unite in the service of great Lebanon
and its Arab cause," said Tueni's father, Ghassan, a distinguished journalist
and diplomat. <BR><BR>Church bells rang as the crowds carried the coffin,
covered with flowers, to the family cemetery in east Beirut. In Martyrs' Square,
the crowds also repeated the vow Tueni led them in making on the same spot at a
March 14 rally: "We swear by God Almighty, Muslims and Christians, to remain
united and defend great Lebanon forever and ever." A Lebanese flag was draped
over Tueni's seat in parliament, which held a session in his honor, later that
day after the funeral. Also, a large banner hung from the headquarters of
an-Nahar in downtown Beirut bearing a picture of Tueni. <BR><BR>May God Bless
his soul. (Allah Yirhamou) </P>
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<DIV>Fatina Salaheddine; Publisher<BR>Al-Sahafa Newspaper Corporation<BR>11535
Lorain Avenue /Suite # 1<BR>Cleveland, Ohio 44111<BR> <BR>Office:
(216) 688-0991<BR>Fax: (216) 688-0993<BR> <BR><A
href="http://www.al-sahafa.us">www.al-sahafa.us</A><BR>What are you waiting for?
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