Elias Hrawi

Infobox President
name = Elias Hrawi


imagesize = 75px
birth_date = 4 September 1925
birth_place = Zahlé, French Mandate of Lebanon
death_date = death date and age|2006|07|07|1925|09|04
death_place = Beirut, Lebanon
office = 13th President of Lebanon
term_start = 24 November 1989
term_end = 24 November 1998
predecessor = René Moawad
successor = Émile Lahoud
religion = Maronite Christian
profession = Lawyer

Elias Hrawi ( _ar. الياس الهراوي) ,(September 4, 1925 - July 7, 2006) was a President of Lebanon, whose term of office ran from 1989 to 1998.

He was a native of the Beqaa valley. 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.

Early life

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 law degree.

A successful 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.

Member of National Assembly

The scion of a politically prominent family, Hrawi followed his brothers Georges 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.

President of Lebanon

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, ending the civil war that had been tearing the country apart for fifteen years and reuniting the major political parties of Lebanon. 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 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 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 principles of the nation, and others have said since that it created the precedent that his successor, Émile Lahoud, would follow (at Syria's behest) in 2004, when his own term of office was similarly extended for three years.

Death

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

Personal life

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

ee also

*List of Presidents of Lebanon

References

External links

* [http://www.medea.be/?page=2&lang=en&doc=74 Elias Hrawi biography on MEDEA.be] (accurate; information originally from the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
* [http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=73789 "Former President Hrawi loses fight against cancer"] , "The Daily Star", July 8, 2006.