ebanese Christians, brought the two sides into rough equilibrium, but no
progress was made toward national reconciliation or political reforms - the
original cause of the war. Continuing Israeli concern about the Palestinian
presence in Lebanon led to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982.
Israeli forces occupied all of the southern portion of the country and
mounted a summer-long siege of Beirut, which resulted in the evacuation of
the PLO from Beirut in September under the supervision of a multinational
force (MNF) made up of US, French, and Italian troops. Within days of the
departure of the MNF, Lebanon's newly elected president, Bashir Gemayel, was
assassinated; his elder brother Amin was elected to succeed him. In the
immediate wake of Bashir's death, however, Christian militiamen massacred
hundreds of Palestinian refugees in two Beirut camps. This prompted the
return of the MNF to ease the security burden on Lebanon's weak Army and
security forces. In late March 1984 the last MNF units withdrew. In 1988,
President Gemayel completed his term of office. Because parliamentarians
failed to elect a presidential successor, Gemayel appointed then Lebanese
Armed Forces (LAF) Commander Gen. Michel Awn acting president. Lebanese
parliamentarians met in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, in late 1989 and concluded a
national reconciliation pact that codified a new power-sharing formula,
specifying reduced powers for the Christian president and giving Muslims
more authority. Rene MUAWAD was subsequently elected president on 4 November
1989, ending a 13-month period during which Lebanon had no president and
rival Muslim and Christian governments. MUAWAD was assassinated 17 days
later, on 22 November; on 24 November, Ilyas Harawi was elected to succeed
MUAWAD. In October 1990, the civil war was apparently brought to a
conclusion when Syrian and Lebanese forces ousted renegade Christian General
Awn from his stronghold in East Beirut. Awn had defied the legitimate
government and established a separate ministate within East Beirut after
being appointed acting Prime Minister by outgoing President Gemayel in 1988.
Awn and his supporters feared Ta'if would diminish Christian power in
Lebanon and increase the influence of Syria. Awn was granted amnesty and
allowed to travel in France in August 199l. Since the removal of Awn,