Besieged: A Doctor's Story of Life and Death in Beirut [Paperback]

Christopher Giannou (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 1991

From October 1985 until January 1988, warring factions used everything from heavy artillery to sniper fire, pounded the tiny Palestinian refugee camp in West Beirut known as Shatila. Besieged is an account of simple courage and ingenuity, of human dignity in circumstances of war and deprivation, of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. During five months of fierce fighting, Dr. Giannou and his medical team performed hundreds of operations and 650 people who were seriously injured were saved.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Giannou, a Canadian surgeon and self-described PLO member, garnered media attention in 1982 when he claimed to have witnessed atrocities by the Israeli Defense Forces (a claim that the IDF has refuted) during their military action in southern Lebanon while he was working at a PLO-run hospital. Now he offers an admittedly partisan and "simplified" account of his later years at a Palestine Red Crescent facility in Beirut's Shatila refugee camp, which was under siege between 1985 and 1988 by warring Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian factions. Giannou did not function as an outsider providing medical services: he also arranged secret gatherings among leaders of various PLO factions under hospital cover. Here he glorifies the guerrilla fighters on whom he operated and tells of meeting with PLO leaders of various stripes (from the more moderate to those who speak of "liberating all of Palestinep. 82 "); he even numbers members of Hizbollah--the Iranian-backed Shi'ite fundamentalist group responsible for hostage-takings and other atrocities--among his friends. In 1988 Giannou returned to Canada after realizing that he had gotten "lost in his passion" and had become "inefficient as a doctor." Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Giannou was the primary surgeon and medical resource for the Shatila camp in Beirut from October 1985 until January 1988. During those 26 months of duty, he performed nearly 700 operations (200 major procedures) under some of the most primitive wartime conditions imaginable. Shatila, "a self-sufficient, isolated community of 3,500 people living in 200 yards by 200 yards, under attack, under siege," was surrounded by elements of Amal (a Syrian-backed Lebanese faction) for nearly three years. During Giannou's tour of duty, the camp endured a four-day battle in January 1986, a 20-day battle in April 1986, and an incredible 134 days of nonstop attack that accounted for 765 wounded and 110 dead residents. Besieged is a well-written work that will bring home the horrors that abound when a country unravels: particularly a country beset as Lebanon is with internecine and international warfare. Highly recommended for all collections.
- David P. Snider, Casa Grande P.L., Ariz.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Olive Branch Pr (December 2, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 094079375X
• ISBN-13: 978-0940793750
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-Opening, April 20, 2006

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Besieged: A Doctor's Story of Life and Death in Beirut (Paperback)

This book is an account of the seige of Shatila refugee camp in Beirut in 1987-1988. Giannou was sent to the camp by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in 1986 to set up and run a field hospital to serve the camp during the coming siege. Giannou, a Canadian by passport of Greek heritage, had had too much experience serving in war zones before, having been a camp surgeon during the Israeli invasion. In 1986, he flew into Lebanon, was surreptitiously brought into the Shatila camp, and did not leave the camp again for 27 months. As Giannou explains it, the word `camp' is a misnomer, since the refugee families had constructed permanent homes in the district many years before. Shatila was more accurately a ghetto within urban Beirut. The enemy forces surrounding the camp were the Amal militia, a Shi'ite faction who sought to eliminate Palestinian influence in Lebanese politics by attacking the refugee camps in Beirut.

The book is a page-turner, leaving the reader constantly wondering whether Shatila will have the wherewithal to survive the siege. The book is quite informative about the situation of Palestinians in Lebanon during the 1980s. I found it quite surprising to read that the enemies of the Palestinians in this battle were other Arabs, rather than Israelis, and that the Palestinians were not united behind the PLO, but rather divided into numerous factions, many of which fought against the PLO forces even during the siege. Giannou does an excellent job of explaining the vastly complicated politics behind the battle as well as describing the horrid conditions that the residents of the camp managed to live through.