Tracy Chamoun
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Tracy Chamoun (born 1962) is a Lebanese author and political activist.
She is one of two surviving children of Dany Chamoun (1934-1990), the former leader of the National Liberal Party and commander of the Tigers militia, which played a significant role in the Lebanese Civil War of 1975 to 1990, and the granddaughter of former President Camille Chamoun. Tracy Chamoun has sought to perpetuate the legacy of her father, who was assassinated together with his second wife and two young sons in 1990, through the Dany Chamoun Foundation. For a while, she maintained an internet website, but disbanded it after it was overrun by vandals. She has written, in French, Au Nom du Pere, an autobiography centered on her relationship with her father and on his life and work. In it, she also recounts the harrowing experience in which she and her mother were kidnapped in 1980 during a surprise attack on the National Liberal Party headquarters by Phalangist militiamen under the command of Bachir Gemayel, her father's former ally.
Chamoun is an outspoken critic of the pro-Syrian government of President Emile Lahoud. She has described her country's independence as a "myth." ''To what extent does the establishment believe that the population is so blind that it cannot see that the nation is far from independent?" she asked rhetorically before the Independence Day celebrations in 1990. "Like the myth of the emperor with no clothes, it is a charade that only the sycophants see and celebrate," she added.
Chamoun is known for her radical political views. She favours the building of a modern democracy, and has spoken out against what she sees as the feudal political system, in which clan loyalties often play a more significant role than ideology in politics. She is rumoured to be impatient with the more moderate and cautious policies of her uncle Dory Chamoun, who currently heads the National Liberal Party. Publicly, however, she has defended her uncle, and has refused to enter into discussions with people critical of him.
Tracy Chamoun has vowed justice for her slain father, and has fought court battles both in Lebanon and abroad to bring his killers to trial. In controversial circumstances, Samir Geagea was convicted of ordering the murder in 1994 and served 11 years of a life sentence, prior to his pardon in July 2005. Tracy Chamoun vowed, "If he ever gets out of jail, I will have signed my death warrant." Her reaction to his release, if any, is currently unknown. She continues to work to bring to justice others connected with the murder.
She was reported to be considering standing as a candidate for the National Assembly in the 2000 parliamentary election, but in the end she did not.
