Elias Hrawi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elias Hrawi

Elias Hrawi (Arabic: الياس الهراوي) (September 4, 1926–July 7, 2006) was a former President of Lebanon, whose term of office ran from 1989 to 1998. A native of the Beqaa valley, Hrawi was the first President to come from outside of the Maronite heartland of Mount Lebanon. He was elected on 24 November 1989, two days after the assassination of René Moawad, who had held office for just seventeen days. When his term was due to expire in 1995, the National Assembly amended the constitution to allow him to remain in office for another three years.

Hrawi was born in Hawch Al-Umara, near Zahle, to a landowning Maronite family. He was educated at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, from which he graduated with a commerce degree. A successful farmer and businessman, he started a vegetable export business, dealing with major Swiss companies. He also headed the Beqaa sugarbeet cooperative. When his export business was destroyed by the civil war that raged from 1975 to 1990, he switched his line of business to oil importing.

The scion of a politically prominent family, Hrawi followed his brothers George and Joseph when he was elected to the National Assembly in 1972. From 1980 to 1982, he served in the Cabinet as Minister of Public Works under President Elias Sarkis and Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan. He concentrated on building bridges and highways to link all parts of the country.

As President, Hrawi signed into law amendments to the Constitution that formalized the Taif Agreement reforms, giving a greater measure of power and influence to Lebanon's Muslim community than before. On 13 October 1990, with support from the Syrian army, he forced General Michel Aoun, who was heading a rival administration, to surrender in order to begin the reconstruction of Lebanon. On 22 May 1991, he signed the Treaty of fraternity, co-ordination and co-operation with Syria, in which Lebanon promised not to allow its territory to be used against Syria's interests.

Lebanese are divided in their opinion of Hrawi. Many appreciate his decisiveness in acting against the feuding militias and ending the civil war that had been tearing the country apart for fifteen years. His supporters viewed him as a realist political figure, and respected him for his long-held conviction that national loyalty should take precedence over sectarian interests, and for promoting peaceful coexistence among Lebanon's religious factions. Some tried to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. Others, however, have accused him of inconsistency for disarming all Christian and most Muslim militias - but not Hezbollah, a Shi'a political party. His critics also point out that he was very supportive of Syrian interests and charge that the cooperation treaty that he signed effectively turned Lebanon into a Syrian colony. He has also been criticized by some for having the Constitution amended to extend his term of office by three years; former President Amine Gemayel said at the time that such actions (which he charged were taken "almost casually") undermined the delicate constitutional fabric of the nation, and others have said since that it created the precedent that his successor, Emile Lahoud, would follow (at Syria's behest) in 2004, when his own term of office was similarly extended for three years.

Hrawi was married to Mona Jammal and had three sons (George, Roy and Roland) and two daughters (Rina and Zalfa).

He died of cancer at the American University Hospital in Beirut.