March 14 MPs: Security Council is last resort on Hariri tribunal

Daily Star, March 14 MPs: Security Council is last resort on Hariri tribunal, May 03, 2007

BEIRUT: March 14 Forces MPs gathered at Parliament on Wednesday within hours of a scheduled UN Security Council meeting to discuss the establishment of an international court to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. "All attempts are to have the tribunal ratified inside of Lebanon and through Lebanese constitutional institutions," Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan told reporters.
Speaking on behalf of the March 14 MPs, Adwan said that the UN Security Council was the last resort for the tribunal to materialize, "for we have all lost hope that the tribunal might be formed within the Parliament."
"The tribunal aims at punishing perpetrators responsible for the string of assassinations that shook Lebanon over the past three years and not to throw false accusations or invent charges," he said.
For the seventh week in a row, pro-government MPs staged a sit-in at Parliament to call for the legislature to convene. The MPs typically have gathered on Tuesday but postponed the protest by a day this week because Labor Day fell on Tuesday this week. Wednesday's turnout of 33 majority MPs marked a notable decline in participation from previous weeks.
Adwan said the issue of the international tribunal and a national unity government were "by now outdated for we have to focus on presidential elections from now on."
Asked whether he agreed with calls from Free Patriotic Movement leader General Michel Aoun for popular presidential elections, the Lebanese Forces MP described Aoun's suggestion as a "clear violation of constitutional texts, which we have long worked to preserve."
In a speech on the occasion of Labor Day Tuesday, Aoun recommended that the Constitution be amended "just for once," so that the Lebanese might elect their next president.
Aoun said that such procedure was likely to allow the Lebanese "to have a say and avoid any regional or foreign interference in elections."
"Previous amendments to the Constitution have all proven to have drastic effects on the political situation in Lebanon," Adwan said.
Thirteen MPs from the opposition also visited their respective offices Wednesday, while their colleagues gathered at the hall of the Parliament to press for legislature to take its course.
Liberation and Development Parliamentary bloc MP Ali Hassan Khalil said that the March 14 Forces have still not let go of their "defiant attitude and are employing every means possible to enlarge the scope of foreign interference in Lebanese domestic affairs.
"Despite the fact that the ruling majority does not seem to want for the Lebanese to enjoy a calm and joyful summer," Khalil said, "one must not loose hope, for windows of opportunities are always available."
MP Ghazi Zeaiter, on the other hand, said that the opposition "was keen on having the truth about the string of murders uncovered the same way as the ruling majority, and even more."