Official from UN's Hariri tribunal stresses 'irreversibility' of probe

by **Admin** Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:02 pm

The
UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon will not need "years" before it begins
trying suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri,
said a senior official from the UN Office of Legal Affairs, which is
establishing the tribunal. "Nobody is talking about years; nobody is
talking about tomorrow" for a trial to begin, Radhia Achouri, senior
communications adviser to UN Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Nicolas
Michel, Monday told a group of journalists in Beirut. "Ultimately,
there will be people who will be named" in indictments for Hariri's
killing, she added.

The
UN Security Council formally created the tribunal last May 30 in
Resolution 1757, after the dormant Lebanese Parliament never met to
vote on the bilateral agreement between the UN and Lebanon to form the
tribunal.

The
tribunal has become another element dividing the country's polarized
political camps, with many in the March 14 governing coalition having
long blamed Syria for the assassination of Hariri and other anti-Syrian
figures, while members of the March 8 opposition have voiced concerns
that the tribunal could be wielded as a tool in the US-led isolation of
Damascus. Syria has denied any involvement.

Last
Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem told ANB television
Damascus had received and rejected "bargain offers" to terminate the
tribunal in exchange for expediting a presidential election in Lebanon.
Without mentioning Moallem, Achouri said the tribunal would not be put
on hold or become fodder for political deals.
"There
will be no room for political bargaining," she said. "There will be no
backtracking on it. The tribunal itself is a reality. They have put an
end to any doubt that this track might be reversed. It is irreversible."

Although
acknowledging the deep rifts in Lebanese society, Achouri said she
thought a "large consensus" here wanted to unveil Hariri's killers, and
she mentioned how the national dialogue in the spring in 2006 had
expressed unanimous support for the tribunal. Speaker Nabih Berri told
Michel Parliament's inability to function was not connected to the
tribunal and he did not have any objections to the tribunal, Achouri
said.

Achouri,
however, did not say when the commission investigating Hariri's
assassination and the other political violence would be ready to submit
an indictment. The office of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is
coordinating the work of the commission, headed by Canadian prosecutor
Daniel Bellemare, with the establishment of the tribunal by the Office
of Legal Affairs, she added.

Achouri
said Michel and his department do not know anything more about the
findings of the investigation than what the commission publishes in its
regular reports.

Bellemare
will meet the Security Council on Tuesday in New York - in a public
meeting and a private consultation session - and then hold a news
conference on the report he released on March 28. Bellemare will later
slide from his role as commission chief to become the tribunal's first
prosecutor, although Ban will officially start the tribunal only after
the investigation makes sufficient headway and the UN consults with the
Lebanese government, Michel has repeatedly said.

As
for the nascent operations of the tribunal, the next major steps will
be when tribunal registrar Robin Vincent takes office and the
tribunal's judges meet to lay down rules of procedure and evidence,
Achouri said.
Achouri
said Vincent commencing work at the tribunal's headquarters in
Holland's The Hague represented a significant milestone, as the British
citizen will function as something like the tribunal's CEO. Vincent
will take office before the summer, Achouri added, and will be
responsible for all the tribunal's administrative matters, as well as
sorting out which countries may be willing to imprison anyone convicted
by the tribunal.

The
UN has selected judges for the tribunal, but it will not announce their
names until security can be assured for the individuals, Achouri said.

In
addition, the tribunal's management committee will meet next month to
ratify the budget for items such as renovation of the former Dutch
intelligence building which will house the tribunal, she said. She
added that the position of the management committee has spurred many
questions about whether the body will exercise political influence and
interfere in judicial matters, but the committee's "role will be only
financial and administrative."

Aside
from the UN, Lebanon and tribunal host the Netherlands, the management
committee includes major donors to the tribunal such as the US, which
doubled its donation from $7 million to $14 million on February 14, the
third anniversary of Hariri's killing. Giving money to the tribunal
does not "entitle" countries to political influence over the tribunal's
work, Achouri added.

Contributions
for the tribunal have topped $60.3 million, enough to cover the
tribunal's first years of operations, Michel said on March 28.

The
management committee exists to oversee the use of funds, while the
model of a tribunal funded by voluntary contributions with a management
committee reflects the international community's move away from "very
expensive" international tribunals such as those for the former
Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s, said Marieke Wierda, head of the
prosecutions program at the International Center for Transitional
Justice.
Lebanon's
tribunal, like that of Sierra Leone, follows a "push to economize"
after the tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which were paid for by
part of the mandatory contributions each UN member state must annually
make, she added.

Aside
from the financial aspect, Lebanon's tribunal differs in other ways
from the models of the international courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda,
as well as the "hybrid" tribunal for Sierra Leone, Wierda said.

Lebanon's
tribunal is based on the UN-Lebanon agreement, meaning the provisions
of the UN Charter's Chapter VII - which requires all member states to
cooperate - do not apply, she added. Although the structure of
Lebanon's tribunal more closely resembles the Sierra Leone hybrid, it
differs in that its headquarters are located outside Lebanon, while
Sierra Leone was able to provide greater security than Lebanon can,
Wierda said.