1) What year were you born?

1960
2) When did Lebanon gain its independence?
1943 November 22
3) At what age did you participate in the war?
Well i did not fight myself because i was 16 back in 76. so we tried not to get involved. in
any kind of political uprising and we didnt want to be taken over.
4) Why did the war start?
Well there are a lot of stories. 76 was the official start of the war. There were mini civil
wars back then. Government was not being fair to all the ethnicities. In 76 if you call it
congressman, they were demonstrating in the town of Ciden that the government isn't giving
them equality. Somehow they started fighting against the lebanese army. In 76 we had a lot of
refugee Palestinians. They were mostly muslim, so they were against the army. The arab gave
them weapons to fight israel. Suddenly we had Palestinians, Muslims, and Christian civilians.
So we are seeing a divided lebanon. West was Muslim. East being Christian.
5) What was your religious background?
I am Catholic. My mom was maronite, but my dad was catholic. So i was catholic by law.
In Lebanon you are to take the citizenship and religion of your father
6) Considering your religious background, what faction did you side with? Lebanese Front
or Lebanese National Movement. Yes i sided with the leabnese front. Which was a
christain organization. Everyone was fighting on their own against the Muslims. The
Front was basically a unififed group.
7) At what age did the war start in your area?
I was 16 when the war started.

8) Do you believe that Lebanon was a prosperous country before the civil war, or has it
always been tormented with violence?
Absolutely. Like i said from the 60s to late 70 they used to call lebanon the paris of the
west. Beruit was a very famous city in the arab world. It was westernized and had a melting pot

of ethnicities. It was equal. It was the envy of the Arab world. Beruit was the geography of
lebanon made it a big destination for vacation. You can ski or go swimming within an hour. You
cant find that in the middle east other than lebanon. Lebanon used to propours. So yes i would
say Beruit was the envy of the middle east before the civil war ravaged on.
9) What was the ratio of Catholic Maronites to Muslims in that region?
It depends on who you ask..; There was never a census. We believe before the war the
christians were mostly Maronites. i would say we were 50 50 christain muslim. Now after the
first two years of the war to the late 90s the Christains were still leaving lebanon to the us
Europe and Aus. Now we think it is 35 percent.
10) Do you think the skewed ratios of the multireligious region may have caused turmoil in
the country?
Absolutely. The biggest problem in lebanon wa the introducting of the palestinion refugee. Back
in the 60s, there were only 3 million people. By bringing radical palestinians the ratio was
skewed and brought trouble. They thought the christians were favoring the us.
11) What was the initial trigger for the war?
It depends who you ask. If you ask me, Ill tell you from my point of view. It started when
the palestinions killed a couple of Christians in a church. If you ask a mulsim, they would say it
started because of the christains. The real bus is in a musium. Its called the famous bus.
12) What were some of the big events that you remember first hand?
Well One of the big things that i remember was my neighbor was kidnapped by the Arab
Army. After 24 hours of torture, they killed him and cut him in pieces to show the town. it was
struck in my mind of the brutality of the army. I had to leave.
13) What groups were extremely hostile towards the Lebanese parliament?
14) How did the government respond to the early streeting fighting?
No. That what is parto f it. They put an army down to fight. However it was so weak. It
was made by lebanese people. Our own people was muslim christians ect But it is

made by the sameg oup that we are fighting against. Therefore there was a split in the
army. There was the lebanese army fighting the christians. There was also a leftover
army that did not split but it was very small. There were extremest that were on both
sides.
15) What did you do to avoid the bombings and gunfight in the street?
Well we didnt have any underground what do yo u call it underground bukers. We
went to the nearest building. all of our buildings were concrete. Maybe a basement.
16) Syria was a neighboring country during this time. Syria was deeply concerned with the
flow of events in Lebanon. How did they attempt to bring about peace diplomatically?
Through military? Well i mean in 76 when the war started at that time Assid didnt want
lebanon to have trouble and side with them. Believe it or not, Assid wanted the christains
to keep their power. They came in to protect the christians. Immideiatly, theyturned their
back on the president and wanted to concour the ogvernment.
17) Was peace truly acquired after the Constitutional Document?

18) Why did the Lebanese Army disintegrate?

19) How did the Syrian backed president, Sarkis , have an effect on Lebanon during this
time? Sarkis was at that time he catually asked the syrians to help. AFter that it stopped.
20) How did the war formally come to an end? Was this truly the end?
21) How did the Israeli-U.S intervention effect the status of the war? in theory the civiil war
stopped for about two years. But in 82, Israel invaded lebanon. They crushed ll of the
resistance. They made it to Beiruit. At that moment the enemy of my enemy is my
friend, we suddelny hoped that the isralis would help us and bring back power. Which it
did help when Bashir was elected president. It was the biggest win for Christains. He
was a real president was wasnnt a puppet. However, they thought he would be a pupet
of israel. i believe yes israel helped, but idont think they didnt make our dicision.

Unfortunaely one memeber of the syrian udergournd milirtary forces put a bomb in the
headqaurers and killed him. THe dream stopped and the civil war started. Now it was
total chaos.
22) Hizballah was formed from the post Syrian/Muslim extremist. They started attackingS
and Israeli forces during this time. Why? Hiballah was formed back in the late eighties to
fight israel in theory. unfortunately they had a lot of terrorist attacks on the us. Hizballah
was a terrorist group in my eyes. However, they can be viewed as freedom fighters. But
then in 2000 Israel was kicked out.
23) When did you realize that you had to leave the country? I left back in 82 after bashir was
killed. I lost all hope when he died. My cousin was here and I graduated from uncc.
24) What did you leave behind? Family? Materials? i left everybody. All my family. I left in 82
and my family was in my hometown. after i left, the muslims were invading small
christain towns. At that time i had no idea what happened to them. Only to find out my
sister was pregnent. She was shot at and her baby was killed but she survived. They
shot at my dads truck which he used for work. They thought it held arms. It was hell.
25) Although Hizballah exists today, do you believe Lebanon is safe enough to occupy?
No. Not at all. If so I would move right back.