Global InformationLebanon hostage crisis information
The Lebanon hostage crisis was the kidnapping in Lebanon of 104 foreign hostages between 1982 and 1992, when the Lebanese Civil War was at its height.[1] The hostages were mostly Americans and Western Europeans, but 21 national origins were represented. At least eight hostages died in captivity; some were murdered, while others died from lack of adequate medical attention to illnesses.[2] During the fifteen years of the Lebanese civil war an estimated 17,000 people disappeared after being abducted.[3]
Those taking responsibility for the kidnapping used different names, but the testimony of former hostages indicates that almost all the kidnappings were done by a single group of about a dozen men, coming from various clans within the Hezbollah organization.[4] Particularly important in the organization was Imad Mughniyah.[5] Hezbollah has publicly denied involvement.[6] The theocratic government of Iran is thought to have played a major role in the kidnappings,[7] and may have instigated them.[8] The Ba'athist government of Syria is also believed to have had some involvement.[citation needed]
The original motive for the hostage-taking is thought to have been to discourage retaliation by the United States, Syria, or other powers against Hezbollah, which is credited with the killing of 241 Americans and 58 French in both the Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut in 1983.[9][10] Other explanations for the kidnappings or the prolonged holding of hostages are Iranian foreign policy interests, including a desire to extract concessions from the Western countries, the hostage takers being strong allies of Iran.[11]
The tight security measures taken by the hostage-keepers succeeded in preventing the rescue of all but a handful of hostages,[12] and this along with public pressure from the media and families of the hostages led to a breakdown of the anti-terrorism principle of "no negotiations, no concessions" by American and French officials. In the United States, the Reagan administration negotiated a secret and illegal arms-for-hostage swap with Iran known as the Iran–Contra affair.
The end of the crisis in 1992 is thought to have been precipitated by the need for Western aid and investment by Syria and Iran following the end of the Iran–Iraq War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and with promises to Hezbollah that it could remain armed following the end of the Lebanese Civil War and that France and America would not seek revenge against it.[13]
- ^ "Remains of French hostage found near Beirut". New York Times. March 6, 2006. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
- ^ Jaber, Hala. Hezbollah: Born with a Vengeance, New York : Columbia University Press, 1997, p. 113
- ^ Hirst, David (2010) Beware of Small States. Lebanon, battleground of the Middle East. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23741-8 p.192
- ^ Los Angeles Times, 26 November 1989; Independent, 9 October 1991; and Le Figaro, 4 December 1989
- ^ Wright, Robin, Sacred Rage, 2001, p. 270
- ^ "Talks in Iran Seek to Free Hostages", New York Times, March 17, 1991, p. 18
- ^ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997) p. 108
- ^ "terror and tehran". www.pbs.org. May 2, 2002.
- ^ Rise to Globalism by Stephen Ambrose, p. 312
- ^ Explained by PLO's Salah Khalef, in Washington Post, 21 February 1987
- ^ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah (1997), p. 54
- ^ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah (1997) p. 147
- ^ Ranstorp, Hizb'allah in Lebanon, (1997), p. 125