[A-List] Courting controversy

["Jim Yarker" <sjy_estrien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: 
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/841/re10.htm

Courting controversy
International and domestic pressure to establish the international tribunal 
to try suspects in Rafik Al-Hariri's assassination has reached unprecedented 
levels, Lucy Fielder reports from Beirut

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As the deadlock between the government and its opponents continues over 
power-sharing and the establishment of an international court to try 
suspects involved in Rafik Al-Hariri's 2005 assassination, two senior 
diplomats are due in Lebanon this week to try to break the impasse over the 
latter.

In a report, Prime Minister Fouad Al-Seniora's government last week asked 
the Security Council to establish the court without going through Lebanese 
channels if necessary. His report was backed by a petition signed by 70 of 
128 parliamentary members, who said they supported the court but had been 
unable to vote on it. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a leader of the 
opposition, has refused to convene the spring session, questioning the 
legitimacy of the government and saying the Lebanese must resolve their 
differences through dialogue -- a position decreed by government supporters 
as a ruse to avoid the establishment of the court.

Seniora's action raised further speculation that the UN might follow the 
precedents of Rwanda and Yugoslavia and independently establish the 
international court, bypassing Lebanese constitutional procedures. Because 
of the ever-fragile balance between Lebanon's sects and political groups, 
Chapter VII of the UN charter option has been seen as a last resort -- 
critics say an invitation to civil war. Hariri's son Saad, head of the 
parliamentary majority, has expressed support for such a move if needed.

Hizbullah Leader Hassan Nasrallah has criticised the proposed form of the 
court which he says will "return pre-established verdicts". His deputy, Naim 
Qassem, has accused the parliamentary majority of seeking to use the issue 
to control Lebanon and said forming it under Chapter VII would be a 
"tribunal against Lebanon and not a trial for Hariri's killers".

However, the opposition has approved establishing the court in principle but 
says it has certain reservations, which have yet to be formally made public. 
Amal Saad- Ghorayeb, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment Middle East 
Centre and an expert on Hizbullah, said she believed the opposition did not 
want to scupper any potential deal on the national unity government by 
showing its hand.

But its reservations were mostly known, she said. "The most important one 
relates to retroactive and post-facto application of the tribunal laws which 
means that files on any alleged crimes committed in the past, can be 
re-opened. It would also give investigators the right to reinvestigate 
political crimes in the future, with the likely outcome that opposition 
figures could be with various offences.

"That falls under the general rubric of the fact that this is a gross 
violation of Lebanese sovereignty to have them take over the entire judicial 
process, when you talk about retroactive and future application of these 
laws as well," she said.

Hariri's Future Movement bloc issued some of its harshest criticism yet of 
the opposition's stance on Monday. A Future statement said the opposition 
wanted to divert attention from the culprits "whom if not for shame would 
have congratulated themselves on their crimes". It called the opposition's 
reservations concerning the court, "the most horrible attempt yet to 
sidestep the crime and exonerate those who carried it out. They want a court 
that finds the criminals not guilty and this is total politicisation of the 
tribunal."

A UN investigation into the killing is expected to run until 2008 at the 
very least. Syria denies involvement in the Hariri killing and a string of 
subsequent assassinations of anti-Syrian figures. Amid increased US pressure 
on Damascus, Syria rejects the court as a politicised tool to try the 
leadership of Bashar Al-Assad as a whole and perhaps effect "regime-change". 
Main opposition group Hizbullah has also expressed concern the court -- 
whose exact form and remit has yet to be set out -- might be used against 
it.

Syria is a conduit for Hizbullah's Iranian supplied weapons and also 
provides political support.

Hariri's assassination on Beirut's waterfront, along with 22 others in 
February 2005, plunged Lebanon into a political crisis. Many in Lebanon and 
abroad accused political and military overlords in Syria of the killing, and 
Damascus withdrew troops that had been stationed in Lebanon for three 
decades, under the weight of international pressure and domestic protests. A 
political stand- off between the anti-Syrian, pro-US camp and those who 
feared Lebanon was moving out of Syria's orbit and into a US-Israeli one has 
paralysed the country ever since, a situation that worsened considerably 
following last year's Israeli war on Lebanon in July and August.

In recent months the battle has become increasingly focused on the 
international court, an issue critics say is deeply politicised. The 
tribunal is supposed to be established by agreement between the Lebanese 
government and the UN. But although the Security Council has signed the 
accord, Lebanon has not ratified it in the absence of parliament reconvening 
and after the resignation of six ministers in November. Pro-Syrian President 
Emile Lahoud has also refused to sign.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon dispatched envoy Nicholas Michel to Beirut 
to break the impasse and facilitate a Lebanese constitutional solution. He 
was expected to arrive on Tuesday and to stay as long as necessary. Saad 
Al-Ghorayeb said the opposition was unlikely to present its reservations 
about the court to Michel, because its stance was that a committee needed to 
be formed to discuss it and that would lessen the chance of a trade-off on 
the unity government. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sultanov 
arrived on Monday with a similar mission.

Legal Expert Shafik Al-Masri said he expected the bilateral treaty, to 
establish the court, to be approved around the end of April, after Ban 
visits Damascus on the 24th. "We hope this last diplomatic effort will 
produce certain positive results. For us that means accepting the holding of 
a meeting to ratify the treaty, in the presence of all concerned Lebanese 
parties.

"But if by the end of this effort nothing happens, it is left to the 
Security Council to issue the statute of the court via a Chapter VII 
resolution," he said.

Ban said Michel's visit was to offer legal assistance to Lebanon's political 
leaders to help them with their constitutional procedures. Michel said he 
intended to stay out of Lebanon's internal controversies, though with the 
court a pivotal issue in the stand-off that may be wishful thinking.

On Monday, political columnist, Ibrahim Al-Amin wrote in the daily 
Al-Akhbar, that both Ban's visit to Damascus and Michel's to Beirut may be 
attempts to avert future blame by appearing to consult with all sides for 
appearances' sake. Washington and Paris, the two main international 
supporters of the court, were in any case pushing Ban to complete his 
diplomacy within the next couple of weeks and to establish the tribunal by 
month's end, Amin added.

"The opposition's assessment of Michel's visit takes into account the game 
of 'avoiding censure' on one hand and on the other hand laying a 'trap' 
which revolves around the idea that the opposition must inform him of its 
observations on the court draft. This is in order to settle the file on 
behalf of the majority in such a way that it can be said that everyone in 
Lebanon and the world attempted to negotiate with the opposition but didn't 
get anywhere."