Elie Hobeika, who died on January 24th aged 45, following a bomb attack at his house in the Beirut suburb of Hazmiyeh, was one of Lebanon's most controversial figures.
His death comes at a time when he had agreed to testify against Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in a war crimes trial that may be held later this year in a Brussels court.
A leader of the Christian Maronite Lebanese Forces (or Phalanges, as they were known) during Lebanon's bloody civil war, Elie Hobeika acted as Israel's liaison chief during that country's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He was the leader of the Phalange forces in the Beirut Palestinian refugee camp of Chatila when the Maronite president, Bachir Gemayel, was assassinated in September 1982.
Elie Hobeika claimed that there were 2,000 Palestinian terrorists hiding in the Sabra and Chatila camps. When given the green light by Israel, whose defence minister was then Ariel Sharon, to enter the camps, the Phalangist militiamen slaughtered more than 2,000 men, women and children.
Born in Kleiat, in the Lebanese province of Kesrwan, Elie Hobeika left school after completing his exams and joined the Banco di Brazil in 1978; by then, he was already a rising star in the Phalanges movement.
He escaped a coup against him by the Phalangist, Samir Geagea, and went to study in Damascus. He was said to have been deeply influenced by the massacre of much of his family and of his fiancée by Palestinian militiamen at Damur in 1976.
His later notoriety depends much on an account of his life in a book, From Israel To Damascus: The Painful Road To Blood, Betrayal And Deception, by one of his bodyguards called Robert Hatem, otherwise known as "Cobra".
The book covers Elie Hobeika's alliance with Israel and his subsequent "betrayal" of the Christian resistance in return for Syrian political patronage. Hatem claims that Elie Hobeika's collaboration was crucial to Syrian control of Lebanon. He calls Elie Hobeika a war criminal.
"I was hypnotised," he writes. "I was doing what I was told, throwing people out of upper-storey windows, shooting others in the swimming pool."
On September 14th, 1982, Lebanon's president, Bachir Gemayael, was killed by an explosion at the Phalangist party headquarters. On the following day, the Israeli army occupied West Beirut. On September 16th, the Israelis held a meeting with Phalangist officers at which they agreed to allow Phalangist militiamen to hunt out terrorists in the Sabra and Chatila camps. A second meeting was attended by Elie Hobeika. It was agreed that he would be in charge of the operation. The massacre began that night.
On the following day, Israel's General Drori ordered the militiamen to stop the operation, but, after a further meeting with the Phalangists, the Israelis agreed to allow them to remain until the following day.
The Phalangists rampaged until Saturday morning, killing and raping indiscriminately. On that day, Morris Draper, one of President Reagan's envoys, sent a message to Sharon, saying: "You must stop the massacres. They are obscene. I have an officer in the camp counting the bodies. You ought to be ashamed. The situation is rotten and terrible. They are killing children. You are in absolute control of the area, and therefore responsible for the area."
The Israeli commission of inquiry into the massacre recalled how Elie Hobeika was asked by a Phalangist colleague over the radio what should be done with the 50 Palestinian women and children prisoners. He had replied, "This is the last time you are going to ask me a question like that. You know exactly what to do." His colleague had laughed in response.
In July last year, Elie Hobeika said he was ready to submit to the Belgian criminal inquiry into the role of Sharon in the massacre.
"I am very interested that the \ trial starts because my innocence is a core issue," he told a news conference. In 1983, an Israel state inquiry had named Elie Hobeika as the man who personally directed the massacre.
In May 1985, Elie Hobeika replaced Geagea as commander of the Lebanese militia. Geagea had been disgraced after provoking fighting with the Palestinians outside Sidon and had been forced to retreat.
In December, Elie Hobeika, the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and the Amal leader Nabi Berri signed a tripartite agreement in Damascus aimed at ending the civil war. But, in the following January, Gemayel refused to sign the agreement and Elie Hobeika was ousted by Gemayal and Geagea.
After the civil war ended in 1990, Elie Hobeika became minister for the displaced, which seemed to many ironic given his violent record. Nevertheless, employees maintained that he took the job seriously. He was later given the electricity portfolio.
He married Gina Raymond Nachaty in 1981. They had a son, Joseph; a daughter died as a baby.
Elie Hobeika: born 1956; died, January 2002