Early life and education

Chamoun was born in Deir el-Qamar on 26 August 1934.^[1] He was the younger son of the former President Camille Chamoun. He studied civil engineering in the United Kingdom at Loughborough University^[2]

Political career

Chamoun reported that he had not had any interest in politics before the Lebanon civil war.^[2] He became the National Liberal Party Secretary of Defense in January 1976, after the death of its predecessor Naim Berdkan. As Supreme Commander of the NLP's military wing, the Tigers, he also played a major role in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War.^[3]

By 1980, the Phalangist-dominated Lebanese Forces were under the command of Bachir Gemayel. The Tigers were eliminated as a military force in a surprise attack by Gemayel’s militia on 7 July 1980.

Chamoun's life was spared, and he fled to the Sunni Muslim-dominated West Beirut. He then went into self-imposed exile.^[4]

He served as General Secretary of the National Liberal Party from 1983 to 1985, when he replaced his father as the party leader.^[5] In 1988, he became President of the revived Lebanese Front—a coalition of nationalist and mainly Christian parties and politicians that his father had helped to found. The same year, he announced his candidacy for the Presidency of Lebanon to succeed Amine Gemayel (Bashir's brother), but Syria (which by this time occupied some 70 percent of Lebanese territory) vetoed his candidacy.

Gemayel's term expired on 23 September 1988 without the election of a successor. Chamoun declared his strong support for Michel Aoun, who had been appointed by the outgoing president to lead an interim administration and went on to lead one of two rival governments that contended for power over the next two years. He strongly opposed the Taif Agreement, which not only gave a greater share of power to the Muslim community than they had enjoyed previously, but more seriously, in Chamoun's opinion, formalized what he saw as the master-servant relationship between Syria and Lebanon, and refused to recognize the new government of the President Elias Hrawi, who was elected under the Taif Agreement.

War period

On January 18, 1976 Dany Chamoun was one of the militia commanders that participated in the Karantina Massacre, Chamoun conducted an interview after the massacre in which he denied that it was a massacre, instead referring to it as a "concise military operation" aimed at reclaiming private property.^[6][7][8]

On June 28, 1976 Dany Chamoun led the attack on Tal el-Zaatar palestinian camp which resulted in a significant loss of life and displacement of Palestinian refugees. Dany Chamoun and Bachir Gemayel claimed that they didn't destroy the entire camp out of concern for the lives of civilians.^[9]

Aftermath and trials

On 24 June 1995, the Lebanese Tribunal found Christian rival Samir Geagea guilty of the murder of Dany Chamoun and his family.^[10] He was sentenced to death commuted to life in prison with hard labour. Co-defendants Camille Karam and Rafic Saadeh were sentenced to ten and one year respectively. Ten other members of the Lebanese Forces were sentenced to life in absentia. The case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence and the trial was described by Amnesty International as seriously flawed. Geagea remained on trial for the Saydet al-Najat Church bombing.^[12] The verdict was rejected by a part of the Lebanese public opinion and by Dany's brother, Dory Chamoun, who declared that the Syrian occupation army was responsible for the massacre.^[10] Geagea was released as a part of a joint goodwill national reconciliation policy, after the Syrian departure.^[13][14]