May 18, 2003 marked the first anniversary of the murder of our cousin, Ramzi Albert Irani. Ramzi was an engineer by profession. He was kidnapped coming out of his office on Beirut's Clemenceau Street and "disappeared" along with his car. A few weeks later, his decomposed body was found in the trunk of his car a few miles away in West Beirut.

Throughout this period several speculations and allegations were exchanged in the media as to the real motive behind Ramzi's slaying. Some stated that his abduction and assassination had political motives as Ramzi was responsible for student mobilization in the now-dissolved Lebanese Forces. Others, in an attempt to smear Ramzi's reputation with unfounded rumours, stated that he was killed because of a love affair gone wrong. The Lebanese government promised an investigation and later was on the brink of revealing its results. But one year has passed and mystery still surrounds his death.

Murder mysteries are all too common in Lebanon. Ramzi Irani's murky death is but one among many. It is impossible to list all the names of the Lebanese who have disappeared and died since 1975. According to the Lebanese Association of the Families of the Kidnapped, well over 15,000 people are still officially "missing". As of today no serious judicial accounting has been made about the fate of these Lebanese. This is a stain on Lebanon's good name and a sign of the triumph of impunity in the Arab world.

In addition to the thousands of Lebanese who were kidnapped or "disappeared", dozens of important political figures' assassinations and disappearances have yet to be investigated. Many truths have yet to be revealed. The names of prominent Lebanese on the list of those mysteriously murdered offer painful reminders of post-war leaders' decision to adopt amnesia as the best of solutions to the trauma of the war years.

Contemporary Lebanese history is strewn with the bodies of leaders whose deaths and "disappearances" were never solved. Thousands of families from every sect know the empty, gnawing grief of mourning a loved one whose body has never been found.

Lebanon's murder mysteries began with the start of the war. Some might even say that one such murder in particular lit the fuse of the long war. In February 1975, Maarouf Saad, a Sunni lawmaker from Sidon, was assassinated. Saad's involvement in politics began in the 1930s. in the 1960s and 1970s, he served as a Parliament member and established the Popular Nasserite Organization. It is widely alleged that Saad was shot by the Lebanese Army, as a result of complex inter-Arab political intrigues, but no one has yet conducted a proper investigation into his murder.

Two years later, in March 1977, Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated. Jumblatt, a political giant, was a man of contradictions. He avidly supported socialist and nationalist ideologies while maintaining a feudal hold on his own community. He played a key role in contemporary Lebanese history, confirming and securing the Druze community as one of the essential linchpins of Lebanon's body politic. During the 1958 civil war, Jumblatt was a staunch supporter of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

At the start of the 1975-90 civil war, Jumblatt created and headed the Lebanese National Movement, a coalition of Lebanese leftist and Muslim organizations allied with Arafat's PLO. Jumblatt's main ambition was to implement his group's objectives of major internal political reforms at the national level. The Druze leader's vision and political ambitions clashed head-on with the Syrian regime of Hafez Assad. At the invitation of then-President Suleiman Franjieh, Assad sent Syrian troops to Lebanon to stop the onslaught of Jumblatt's forces and their Palestinian allies. Jumblatt was killed by parties unknown near a Syrian checkpoint in the Chouf Mountains. As of today, no official inquiry has been established to determine who was behind his death.
In 1978, Imam Musa Sadr, another political giant, "disappeared" while on official visit to Libya. Sadr was born in Qom, Iran, to a distinguished family of Arab and Iranian Shiite religious scholars and completed his studies in Najaf, Iraq and Tehran. In 1959, Sadr returned to Tyre, where he settled with his family. A man of immense charisma and towering stature, he played an important role in organizing and empowering Lebanon's Shiite community. In the late 1960s, he established the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to manage the affairs of this community. During the 1975-90 civil war, Sadr was a staunch advocate of his community's political, social, and religious rights, placing a firm emphasis on the question of human dignity that reverberated beyond the Shiite community. Sadr helped establish Harakat al-Mahrumin, or the Movement of the Disinherited, and its military wing, the Amal Movement. As of today, there has been no official investigation of Sadr's "disappearance", despite the tireless efforts of his family and the noble interventions of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

Though his work lives on and continues to aid and inspire many Lebanese (through the auspices of the Imam Musa Sadr Foundation ably led by the imam's sister, Sitt Rabab Sadr Charefeddine), the continuing mystery of his disappearance mars Lebanese as well as Arab political life. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is widely suspected to be responsible for Sadr's fate.

In 1982, Bashir Gemayel, Lebanon's Christian condottiere, was killed in the bombing of the Phalange Party headquarters in East Beirut. During the civil war, Gemayel attempted ruthlessly to extend the rule of his militias (the Lebanese Forces) all over the Christian-dominated areas of Lebanon. To achieve his political and military aims, Bashir Gemayel resorted to violence. To many of his followers, Gemayel is still considered a hero. His alleged killer was arrested and jailed, but later released. Gemayel's widow Solange is now head of a foundation that bears his name and continues his legacy.

Two more victims of Lebanon's civil war and associated outside interferences were from north Lebanon. In June 1987, Prime Minister Rashid Karami from Tripoli, one of Lebanon's most prominent and admired Sunni politicians, was assassinated, allegedly by the Lebanese Forces. As of today, though, the real motives and agents of his death remain unknown. Again, no investigation has solved the remaining questions.

The Lebanese civil war's last political victim was President Rene Mouawad, the son of a prominent and respected Maronite family in northern Lebanon. An attorney by profession, Mouawad was elected deputy to the Lebanese Parliament in 1957 and was subsequently re-elected until he became president in 1989. During the civil war, he distanced himself from the Lebanese Forces and decided to remain neutral.

On Oct. 22, 1989, the Lebanese Parliament adopted the Taif Accord. One month later, on Nov. 22, Lebanon's Independence Day, Mouawad was assassinated just a few weeks after being installed as president. His was one of the shortest presidential reigns in history. Given his reputation for wisdom and integrity, it was a sad loss for Lebanon. As of today, no official commission has ever investigated this crime. Mouawad's widow, Nayla, inherited his mantle and ably serves as an elected member of the Lebanese Parliament, devoting much of her time and energy to the noble causes of civil society, education and the environment.

This abbreviated list of assassinated politicians is an alarming index of Lebanon's state of deadly amnesia and a reminder of the dangers of impunity. if the Lebanese government is not yet ready to investigate why each of Lebanon's religious communities has lost at least one of its leading members, not to mention tens of thousands of innocent civilians, then let the people do it. Civil society in Lebanon ought to take advantage of - or  better yet, test - the Bush administration's stated policy of encouraging democracy in the Middle East by initiating an investigation into Lebanon's long chain of murder mysteries. Certainly something similar, and on an even larger scale, must soon happen in Iraq.
 



George Emile Irani teaches conflict analysis and management at Royal Roads University. Laurie King-Irani teaches anthropology at the University of Victoria.