Official from UN”s Hariri tribunal stresses “irreversibility” of probe
“There will be no room for political bargaining”
“There will be no room for political bargaining”
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.