Elusive Truth

On the day after he was inaugurated last September, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel ordered Assad Germanos, chief prosecutor of the country's military tribunal, to conduct an investigation of the Beirut massacre and to report his findings directly to him. Gemayel told Germanos, "We want all the truth, not 50% or anything less than all the truth. Our nation's honor is at stake, so you must do everything, even the impossible."

Unlike Israel, Lebanon has only recently emerged from a civil war and is deeply riven by political strife. At the time of Gemayel's request, Germanos' office was still in ruins from the crossfire in Beirut. Germanos has also been hampered by the need to carry on his regular duties, which included trying 6,752 cases last fall.

Germanos and his aides have taken testimony from more than 100 witnesses, including senior officials of the Phalangist forces that are widely believed to have committed the atrocities. Aware of the dangers his investigation poses, Germanos refuses to divulge the names of his staff. As for himself, he says, "If I worried about being killed, I would change jobs."

It is uncertain what Gemayel will do with the report once Germanos delivers it to him. The Phalangist militia men still make up the most powerful Lebanese military force, and they operate as a law unto themselves. Gemayel's relationship with them is strained, and they have the power to disrupt his government.

Many Lebanese are also frankly cynical about an investigation into a single massacre, however tragic it was. The 1975-76 civil war in Lebanon took 100,000 lives, and killings are still committed with impunity every day. People reason that it is both unrealistic and unwise to expect that justice will be done, since there has been no justice in Lebanon for so long a time. Many Lebanese Christians and Muslims agree that it is more important for Gemayel to disarm the Phalangist militia and work toward national reconciliation than to try and bring to justice those responsible for the Palestinian massacres. Gemayel may want a thorough investigation, but to get it he is not likely to prejudice a complex political process that may determine the survival of Lebanon as a nation. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.