Prominent anti-Syrian journalist and lawmaker Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bomb explosion in Beirut Monday, a day after he returned from Paris, where he had based himself in recent months in fear of assassination. A previously unknown group claimed responsibility for the blast, but many quickly accused Damascus in the slaying.
Tueni, 48, is survived by his wife, Siham Asseily and four daughters.
Syria denied being behind the blast, which came on the day that the UN Security Council was due to receive a UN inquiry's report into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, in which Syrian officials have been implicated, a Reuters report said. Lebanon Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called an emergency meeting of top security officials and the Cabinet.
Churchbells tolled and people 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, Reuters said.
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.
A parked car packed with an estimated 40 kg of TNT exploded as Tueni's motorcade passed through the hilly industrial suburb of Mkalles, flinging his armour-plated vehicle and several other cars into a ravine. Tueni, his driver and a passerby were killed. Another 30 people were wounded in the bombing, which shattered nearby store windows and started a fire that destroyed at least 10 other vehicles. The bodies of Tueni, his driver and a bodyguard were found in the car, charred beyond recognition.
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 offer their condolences. Several hundred 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.
"The most frightening thing about this is nobody knows why, nobody knows how, and nobody knows who's next," said Nadim Shehadi, who directs the Center for Lebanese Studies at Oxford University in Britain.
The World Association of Newspapers expressed its outrage and sorrow over Tueni's assassination. "The world press community has lost one of its great defenders of press freedom and freedom of expression. Tueni's death is a terrible loss not only for his family, friends and colleagues, but for the cause of freedom and hope in the Middle East," a WAN statement said, and called on the Lebanese government to do everything possible to ensure that the killers are swiftly brought to justice.
Tueni was a WAN Board Member for 10 years. In the mid-1990s, he received the WAN "Award for Publishing Achievement" for his courage and perseverance in bringing out his newspaper, An Nahar, throughout the Lebanese civil war. He was for many years a leading member of the WAN Press Freedom Committee and participated in press freedom missions to China and Algeria, among others.
"Just last month, Gebran was asked by Timothy Balding, Director-General of WAN, how he found the courage to go on working under serious threat of death, He replied: "What else should I do? I'm happy. My newspaper, by telling the truth, has been key as a catalyst in the progress towards real independence for my country. After all these years of conflict, that's something we can be proud of."
Tueni is the fourth prominent anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon to be killed in a string of 14 bombings in Lebanon that began with the February 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 UN investigation into Hariri's slaying, which has focused on Syrian officials and their allies in Lebanon. He was elected as a member of parliament for the Greek Orthodox seat in Beirut in the May election on an anti-Syrian slate led by Saad al-Hariri, son of Rafik al-Hariri. Tueni had said in August that he had "accurate" information that his name was on an assassination hitlist and had spent much of his time abroad since then citing security fears.
Nick Blanford, Beirut correspondent of the Times, said, "Tueni was seen very much as a crusading journalist and used An-Nahar to push ahead the political agenda to get Syria out of Lebanon. More than five years ago he wrote an open letter to Bashar al-Assad, who was to become President four months later when his father Hafez al-Assad died, saying that the relationship between Syria and Lebanon had to change – this was a taboo subject at the time, and really set the ball rolling for the campaign which eventually led to the Syrian withdrawal earlier this year."
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) expressed shock at the killing, and said in a statement, "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."
International Press Institute (IP) Director Johann P Fritz said in a statement, "Tueni's death offers further proof that the situation for journalists in Lebanon is becoming increasingly volatile. We call on the Lebanese authorities to immediately carry out a thorough investigation to ensure that those responsible for Tueni's death do not go unpunished."
Leading Lebanese politician Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Tueni's uncle, blamed Syria for the bombing. Jumblatt said the blast 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 UN 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.
Syrian Information Minister Mehdi Dakhlallah denied his government was involved, telling LBC television: "Those who are behind this are the enemies of Lebanon."
The US 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-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 UN team investigating Hariri's slaying, presented his second report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday. It was expected to be released to the press Monday. Syria has denied 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.
Chronology of major political assassinations in Lebanon over the past three decades:
- February 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.
- November 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.
- October 1990 - Gunmen kill Dany Chamoun, chairman of the National Liberal Party and former Christian militia leader, in Christian suburb of Beirut.
- February 1992 - Israelis kill Abbas Mussawi, leader of Shi'ite Hizbollah militia, in helicopter ambush of his convoy near village of Jibsheet in south Lebanon.
- January 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.
- February 2005 - Huge car bomb kills Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Beirut's waterfront.
- December 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.
