The Assyrian Democratic Organization
By Rick Guinness
UNITED NATIONS – AP — The Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the United Nations announced Friday.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was pleased to receive a letter from Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Wednesday informing him that "the government of the Netherlands is favorably disposed to hosting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon." Ban will send a delegation to the Netherlands in the coming weeks to discuss practical arrangement for the establishment and operation of the tribunal, Montas said.
A deeply divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution on May 30 to unilaterally establish an international tribunal after the speaker of the Lebanese parliament refused to call a session to have members ratify the statutes to create it. The vote was 10-0 with Russia and China — who have veto powers — among the five abstentions. The resolution gave the Lebanese parliament until June 10 to act. When it did not, the U.N.-Lebanon agreement automatically entered into force, creating a tribunal outside Lebanon with a majority of international judges and an international prosecutor.
Council diplomats have said that establishing the court could take a year. The suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February 2005 sparked huge protests against Syria, which was widely seen as culpable. Syria denied involvement but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year presence. The issue of an international tribunal has since fueled a deep political conflict between Prime Minister Fuad Saniora’s Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed, Hezbollah-led opposition.
The conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone and erupted into street battles, leaving over a dozen dead and many injured in recent months. The first U.N. chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of Hariri’s assassination suggested Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services played a role in the bombing. Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for 20 months in the case.
The current chief investigator, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, said in his latest report last month that the U.N. inquiry has identified people who may have been involved in the assassination. While not identifying anyone, he said investigators had "significantly narrowed down" possible motives for the slaying to Hariri’s political and personal relationships in Lebanon, Syria and other countries. In a letter to Balkenende last month asking the Netherlands to host the tribunal, Ban stressed the fact that it already hosts a number of special courts and tribunals and emphasized that the country’s experience and knowledge would be invaluable for the Lebanon tribunal.
The Netherlands already hosts the U.N.’s highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The country also hosted the trial of two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and is currently home to the special court trying former Liberian President Charles Taylor on charges related to atrocities committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Dutch radio Thursday that the Netherlands will insist as a condition for hosting the Lebanon tribunal that those convicted will serve their sentences in another country. Dutch authorities set the same condition when they agreed to stage Taylor’s trial. Arrangements were delayed for months until Britain agreed to find a cell for Taylor if he is convicted. Verhagen said the Netherlands also wants assurances of the Lebanon tribunal’s funding.
