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]
The kidnapped victims consisted of 25 Americans, 16 French, 12 British, 7 Swiss, 7 West Germans and 1 Irish man. [14] [15] The hostage takers bore obscure titles such as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), the Organization for the Defense of Free People (ODFP), the Oppressed of the Earth Organization (OEO), the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine (IJLP), the Revolutionary Justice Organization (RJO), the Organization of Right against Wrong (ORAW), Followers of the Prophet Muhammad (FPM), and the Holy Strugglers for Justice (HJS).
With the exception of a few hostages such as CIA Bureau Chief William Francis Buckley and Marine Colonel William Higgins (who were both killed), most of the hostages were chosen not for any political activity or alleged wrongdoing, but because of the country they came from and the ease of kidnapping them. Despite this, the hostages complained of and had physical signs of mistreatment, such as repeated beatings and mock executions. [16]
Some of the hostages were:
Hezbollah, sometimes described as the "umbrella group" of Shia radicalism in Lebanon, is considered by most observers to be the instigator of the crisis.
Analysis of the hostage-crisis in Lebanon yields that Hezbollah was undisputably responsible for the aforementioned abductions of Westerners despite attempts to shield its complicity through the employment of cover-names. Its organisational framework was not only sophisticated and assimilated according to Iranian clerical designs but also closely integrated with several key Iranian institutions which provided it with both necessary weaponry and training to successfully confront self-proclaimed Islamic enemies and invaluable financial support ... [7]
Hezbollah itself, denies the charge, proclaiming in 1987:
We look with ridicule at the accusations of Hezbollah in connection with the abductions of foreign hostages. We consider that is a provocation and hold America responsible for the results. [47]
Another source claims that with the exceptions of six Iranian hostages, all the hostages appear to have been seized by groups allied with Iran. [48]
The two main operatives of the hostage taking were reported to be Imad Mughniyah, a senior member of the Hezbollah organization, who was described by journalist Robin Wright as the "master terrorist" behind the campaign [5] and Husayn Al-Musawi (also spelled Hussayn al-Mussawi). The village of Ras al-Ein, in the Beqaa Valley of East Lebanon was a place were the victims were held. [29]
According to scholar Gilles Kepel "a few of the kidnappings were money-driven or linked to local concerns, but most obeyed a logic whereby Hezbollah itself was no more than a subcontractor for Iranian initiatives". [49] Motivation for the hostage-taking includes:
If you are interested in having your people [who are] held hostage in Lebanon released, then tell the Phalangists [Christian militia] to release our people who have been in their hands for years. [50]
On 18 July 1980, Naccache was arrested for the attempt to kill Bakhtiar. A police officer and a bystander were killed in the subsequent battle with the police. Naccache and three others were given life sentences. ... Naccache's release later became a condition for freeing the Western hostages in Lebanon. [57]
Naccache was freed on 27 July 1990, together with four accomplices, after being pardoned by President François Mitterrand. All five men were put on a plane bound for Tehran. The deal also brought political, military and financial benefits to Iran itself: the release of its frozen assets and desperately needed spare parts for their armaments. The French also kicked out most of the Iranian opposition leaders who had taken sanctuary in their country following the revolution." Three French hostages in Lebanon, Jean-Pierre Kaufmann, Marcel Carton et Marcel Fontaine, had been released by kidnappers on May 4, 1988. France denied reports that the release of Naccache was a repayment for the release of the three French hostages . [57]
By 1991, radical Shia operatives imprisoned in Europe had been freed. Islamic Dawa Party members convicted of terrorism in Kuwait had been freed by the Iraqi invasion. There was no need to pressure Western supporters of Iraq because the Iran–Iraq War was over. It was pretty well established that the four missing Iranians were no longer alive. [58]
More importantly Iran was in need of foreign investment "to repair its economy and infrastructure" after the destruction on the border areas in the Iran–Iraq War, and Syria needed "consolidation of its hegemony over Lebanon" and to obtain Western aid to compensate for the loss of Soviet support following the collapse of the Soviet Union. [13] Syria was actively pressuring Hezbollah to stop the abductions and a February 1987 attack by Syrian troops in Beirut that harassed members of Hezbollah was in part an expression of Syrian irritation with the continued hostage-taking. [59] Hezbollah had guarantees from Syria that despite the end of the Lebanese Civil War, it would be allowed to remain armed, while all other Lebanese militias would be disarmed, on the grounds that Hezbollah needed its weapons to fight Israeli occupation in the South. [60]
This combination of factors created a setting whereby UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and his personal envoy, Giandomenico Picco (served on the Board of Governmental Relations for the American Iranian Council), could negotiate "a comprehensive resolution to the hostage-crisis". By December 1991, Hezbollah had released the last hostage in return for Israel's release of imprisoned Shi'ites. [61]
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Hezbollah is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led since 1992 by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. Its armed strength is assessed to be equivalent to that of a medium-sized army.
William Francis Buckley was a United States Army officer in the United States Army Special Forces, and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) station chief in Beirut from 1984 until his kidnapping and execution in 1985.
The Islamic Jihad Organization was a Lebanese Shia militia known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War.
The Organization of the Oppressed on Earth is a group that claimed responsibility for kidnappings, bombings, and executions in Lebanon in the 1980s. It was considered a precursor to, or another name for, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine (IJLP) was a Lebanese Shia group that claimed credit for the January 24, 1987 abduction of three American and one Indian professors – Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill, Mithaleshwar Singh – from Beirut University College in West Beirut. They were eventually released.
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Husayn Al-Musawi is a Lebanese who founded the now-dissolved pro-Iranian Islamist militia Islamic Amal in 1982. He was a Shia from Baalbek.
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