Dutch set conditions for hosting Hariri tribunal

Daily Star - Dutch set conditions for hosting Hariri tribunal, August 17, 2007

By Arthur Blok.

The Dutch government is setting conditions before agreeing to host the trial of suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. A key condition is that another country volunteer in advance to imprison anyone convicted in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri in February 2005, said spokesman Bart Rijs.
Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Dutch radio he expects the government to agree to a request by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month that the Netherlands host the court.
But Verhagen "expects some practical matters to be arranged first," Rijs said. "We insist that people ... convicted by the tribunal would not be detained after their conviction in the Netherlands but in another country," he added. Verhagen said the matter would be settled once agreements had been reached on issues such as who would bear the costs.
"We will react positively" to the request of Ban to have the tribunal in The Hague, he said.
"I am working under the premise that the tribunal will be in The Hague. Obviously we have to sort out some practical matters first like financing and where possible convicts will go to serve their sentences," the minister said, adding: "I think it will work out."
The United Nations secretary general wrote to Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende last month asking the Netherlands to host the Hariri tribunal. Balkenende will send Ban his positive response "very soon," Verhagen said.
Sources close to the Cabinet of Balkenende told The Daily Star that they will advise him positively on the tribunal. They are currently looking into the practical side of setting up the tribunal, the sources said.
Dutch authorities set the same condition when they agreed to stage the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for war crimes in Sierra Leone. Arrangements were delayed for months until Britain agreed to find a cell for Taylor if he is convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
A second question concerned the financing of the Hariri tribunal, which could operate for years and cost millions, including security and salaries for staff and a panel of international judges.
"Of course, the tribunal does not need to be paid [for] by the Dutch government, it is paid for by Lebanon and the member states of the UN," Rijs said.
Negotiations are under way to satisfy the Dutch conditions, the spokesman said.
Questions concerning the location of the tribunal inside the Netherlands must also be settled. It is still uncertain if the tribunal will be located in The Hague itself or should there be an alternative location. Sources close to the cabinet said they are waging alternatives such as Camp Zeist. This old military base in the center of Holland was also used to try the two Libyans held responsible for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland on December 21, 1988.
Before the Dutch government can officially decide about the Hariri tribunal, it needs to receive the approval of the Dutch Parliament.
A representative of the Liberal party VVD, an opposition party holding 22 seats, reacted enthusiastically to the remarks made by the foreign ministry. MP Hans van Baalen said on Thursday he hopes that the government will hurry up.
"Otherwise we might lose it to other countries", he said.
Socialist MP Harry van Bommel was less amused by the words spoken by Verhagen. His party, which represents 25 seats, believes that the Parliament is being put to the side by the government.
"Such crucial decisions should be first discussed in Parliament. This is not the right way", said Van Bommel.
However, the governing coalition can count on a majority of eighty seats from the 150 MPs in Parliament.
The Dutch government has been keen to strengthen the Netherland's role as the world's legal center.
Hariri and 22 others died in February 2005 in a Beirut car bombing that interim UN findings have linked to Syrian and Lebanese security officials. Syria has denied involvement.
The UN and the Lebanese government agreed last year that a special tribunal based outside Lebanon would try those suspected of killing Hariri.
UN officials have said they expect it to take up to a year to get the court functioning after a UN-established commission completes its investigation.
The first UN chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis, said the complexity of the 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.
Wrangling over the tribunal has fueled a political crisis between Lebanon's Western-backed government and the opposition. The tensions have erupted into street battles in January, killing 11 people.