Bellemare meets Lebanese leaders
The new chief of a U.N. commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri met Saturday with top Lebanese leaders in preparation for taking up the job early next year.
Daniel Bellemare, a former Canadian prosecutor, was appointed last month by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to replace outgoing Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as head of the commission probing Hariri”s slaying in a massive truck bombing.
Bellemare, accompanied by Brammertz, met first with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, the state-run National News Agency reported. The speaker is allied with the Iranian and Syrian backed opposition, which is led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The two later met with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, whose Western-backed government has been locked in a fierce power struggle with the opposition for over a year.
The NNA provided no details of talks, which were believed to be courtesy calls by Bellemare before assuming his job in January. His predecessor, Brammertz, is leaving Lebanon to head the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
Saniora has asked the United Nations to help investigate this week”s assassination of a top Lebanese general, Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj, who was killed along with his driver in a car bombing. Hajj had been expected to take over as head of the army after the likely election of the current commander, Gen. Michel Suleiman, as the country”s new president.
U.N. investigators probing Hariri”s assassination are already assisting the Lebanese government with investigations of 18 other assassinations and bombings that targeted mainly anti-Syrian figures.
In his final appearance before the U.N. Security Council last week, Brammertz said he is more confident than ever that those allegedly involved in the killing of Hariri and 22 others will be brought before a tribunal to face justice.
He said that progress made in the last few months has enabled U.N. investigators to identify a number of persons of interest who may have been involved in some aspect of the crime , or knew about the preparations.
Brammertz also said in his final report that investigators had confirmed their hypothesis that operational links may exist between the perpetrators of the 18 other targeted assassinations and bombings in Lebanon.
Picture: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora meets with Serge Brammertz, outgoing chief of the UN Hariri investigation, and his successor, Daniel Bellemare, on December 15. (Dalati & Nohra)