Gebran Tuéni, in the center, points his pen towards the sky during the sit-in for the assassination of Samir Kassir, on June 3, 2005. In the foreground, his daughter Nayla can be seen, who will take over as head of the newspaper an-Nahar. Archive photo Ibrahim Tawil / L'Orient-Le Jour
Several Lebanese political figures paid tribute to Gebran Tueni on Friday to mark the 20th anniversary of his assassination, as well as to General Francois al-Hajj, who was assassinated 18 years ago. Both men were killed on the same date, Dec. 12, two years apart, in car bomb attacks.
Tueni, the Lebanese politician, editor-in-chief and publisher of the daily newspaper al-Nahar, was killed in a bomb attack in Mkalles, east of Beirut, as part of a series of attacks attributed to the now-defunct Assad regime in Lebanon.
The head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM, Aounist), Gebran Bassil, paid homage to Tueni and Hajj. "Today, we remember Gebran Tueni and Francois al-Hajj. They are gone, but their presence is still palpable," Bassil said, saluting "those whose martyrdom made it possible to build a nation."
Tueni had been a harsh critic of Syrian tutelage over Lebanon. Hajj was assassinated in 2007 in a car bomb attack in Baabda. Before his death, he led the deadly military operation against the organization Fateh al-Islam in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp in North Lebanon, which had taken place a few months prior.
'Intimidations from the Assad regime'
For his part, Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel said that the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Tueni "falls within the framework of the intimidation used by the Assad regime and its allies to break the will of the Lebanese people."
"Today, with that regime's fall, his oath lives on: freedom is stronger than oppression and sovereignty is inviolable. We pledge to continue the struggle led by Gebran, Pierre [Gemayel, Samy's brother, killed on Nov. 21, 2006, in a shooting], and the other martyrs of the Cedar Revolution," added Gemayel. The 'Cedar Revolution' called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, for his part, posted on X a portrait of Tueni accompanied by the caption: "The regime of assassinations has collapsed. Dec. 12, anniversary of the martyr Gebran Tueni."
"On this anniversary of the assassination of Gebran Tueni, I remember the image of this man who made sovereignty an unshakable fate," commented Tripoli MP Ashraf Rifi.
"He was assassinated because he carried Lebanon in his heart and bravely opposed the project of hegemony. Today, we renew our commitment to continue on the path he paved with his blood. Gebran is not dead; it is the project that killed him that is dead," he added.
"We commemorate the assassination of the journalist and passionate defender of 'Greater Lebanon', the martyr Gebran Tueni, and that of Francois al-Hajj, also a martyr, recalling the pain that struck the Lebanese people in their quest for freedom, sovereignty and independence," wrote former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
"We can only reaffirm our attachment to the state and its constitutional institutions, because that is the most eloquent response to the assassin. To honor these two martyrs is to defend the state above all else with fervor," he added.
Saad Hariri himself lost his father, former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in a 2005 attack in Beirut attributed to Hezbollah.
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