Gibran TueniLess than a day after returning from self-imposed exile in Paris, the writer-turned-politician Gibran Tueni, a clarion voice against Syrian domination of Lebanon, was murdered on his way to work last Monday.
In August Tueni (48), former editor and publisher of his family-owned - and widely read - newspaper, An-Nahar (The River), told French radio that he was "top of a Syrian hit list" of prominent Lebanese figures.
His death last Monday preceded by hours the expected announcement of the second Mehlis report on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. To Hazem Sagieh, of the leading Arab newspaper Al-Hayat, the confluence of events "may have been designed to divert attention from a report that Syria knew would be tough on [ its role] in Lebanon".
Tueni certainly played a commanding role in the events following Hariri's murder that ultimately saw Syrian military forces leave Lebanon in April, after 29 years. From his stylish offices overlooking Martyrs Square, Beirut, he enjoyed a ringside seat of the crowds who spontaneously gathered to demand Syria's departure.
In fact, Tueni had long ago nailed his colours to the opposition mast. His grandfather founded An-Nahar in 1933, and the young Gibran succeeded his father, Ghassan Tueni, as managing editor of the paper in December 1999.
Earlier, he had experienced war at first hand: at 18, he was shot in the legs by Palestinian guerrillas, and a year later kidnapped by Christian militiamen. In 1989 he openly supported the anti-Syrian alliance of Gen Michel Aoun, but when Aoun was ousted by Syrian and associated forces, Tueni fled to Paris. Returning in 1993, he joined An-Nahar as a journalist.
His most famous broadside came in the form of an open letter in March 2000 to Bashar al-Assad, the current Syrian president. Israeli forces had just left southern Lebanon after 21 years; there was, argued Tueni, no longer any excuse for a Syrian presence in Lebanon. He demanded a timetable for redeployment, raised the delicate issue of Lebanese citizens detained in Syria and challenged Damascus to allow free elections. Unsurprisingly, he made enemies.
But he cut a dashing figure. With his slicked-back hair, immaculate moustache and fine suits, he was likened to a 1940s matinee idol. His mobile ring-tone (consisting of maniacal laughter) testified to a sense of fun. His hobbies included riding, sailing and flying. He was, said one recent visitor to his office, "a vigorous man in his prime, someone with a strong sense of himself".
Opposed to sectarianism, Tueni was a rare mix of identities, given that his father, a former ambassador to Washington, was a Greek Orthodox Christian, and his mother, the late poet Nadia Tueni, was Druze in origin. He himself was educated largely in France. He had been in the family media business all his working life.
The Hariri assassination prompted Tueni to forgo the pen and enter mainstream politics, and in June he was elected to parliament. As threats mounted, however, he left for Paris in August. He is survived by his wife Siham Ossaili and four daughters, Nayla, Michelle, Gabriella and Nadia.
Gibran Ghassan Tueni: born September 15th, 1957; died December 12th, 2005