Daily Star - Fin des negociations sur les locaux du Tribunal

Daily Star - Hariri tribunal concludes negotiations on premises ; Members of core staff begin trickling to the Hague, June 18, 2008


By Michael Bluhm


The UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon has now taken control of the former Dutch intelligence building in The Hague which will serve as the tribunal's headquarters, tribunal registrar Robin Vincent told The Daily Star on Tuesday. "We have now concluded the negotiations on the lease," Vincent said, adding that the lease should be signed at the beginning of next week. "The building is in the possession of the advance team. It has been secured on our behalf."

The building will become home for the UN tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. The tribunal, created last May 30 by UN Security Council Resolution 1757, has a mandate encompassing assassinations and attempted assassinations from the failed bid to kill Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh in October 2004 through the killing of Internal Security Forces Major Wissam Eid on January 25 of this year.

The prospective court has frequently cropped up as a key issue dividing the March 14 and March 8 political camps. March 14 figures have long blamed Syria for Hariri's killing and for the string of assassinations and attempts which have bedeviled the country since, while the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad has denied any role in the violence and has said it will not allow its citizens to appear before the tribunal.

Many on both sides have talked about the tribunal's potential use as a negotiating tool between Syria and the West, with many March 14 figures citing the length of time to establish the tribunal as a sign of its unsure status.

One member of Vincent's core staff started work in The Hague on Monday, and others will take up their posts there before the end of the month, Vincent added.

"What I've decided is that getting people to The Hague sooner rather than later is important," said Vincent, who previously served as registrar in the Special Court for Sierra Leone.


Canadian Judge Daniel Bellemare, who heads the UN team investigating the political violence and who will become the tribunal's first prosecutor, said in his April 8 report to the UN that "no one can predict or dictate how long" it will take him to submit indictments.

"Any illusion of immediacy must be dispelled," said Bellemare in his report to UN chief Ban Ki-moon, his first report since taking office in January. "Our progress is neither slow nor immediate: It is deliberate."

Vincent said he plans to arrive around the beginning of July, after the tribunal's management committee approves the operating budget for the tribunal's first year.

Vincent added that he expects the court's management committee to approve the budget within the next 10 days, and the ratification will serve as the "final trigger" for him to move to The Netherlands. The committee could still change the amount of the budget, so Vincent would not release the figure he submitted, but he previously told The Daily Star it would be around $45 million.

Bellemare has had "significant input" into shaping the prosecution's budget, Vincent said, but added that he could not set a date for when Bellemare would leave Beirut for The Hague and formally assume the office of prosecutor.

The Security Council recently extended the mandate of the investigation commission until the end of this year, so Vincent and his team will endeavor to prepare the tribunal's headquarters so that the court could begin functioning from next January, he said.