Daily Star - US steps up pressure for Hariri court to start work, March 27, 2008
Michael Bluhm
The US continued calling attention to the establishment of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, as the UN's legal chief presents a report on the tribunal and the UN's investigation to the Security Council on Thursday. US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Kristen Silverberg had told reporters that the tribunal registrar, Robin Vincent, would take office next month, but the UN said on Wednesday that it had not fixed a date. "As far as I know, no date has been set," Radhia Achouri, senior communications adviser to UN Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel, told The Daily Star on Wednesday. She added that no new developments had arisen regarding the tribunal since UN chief Ban Ki-Moon made his last report to the Security Council on March 12, in which he stated that Vincent had been appointed to a three-year term "to commence at a later date" "It's just business as usual," Achouri said. Michel will make a regular report to the Security Council in New York on Thursday morning about progress in the investigation into Hariri's killing and other political violence in Lebanon, as well as on preparations for the tribunal. Silverberg, who recently visited the former Dutch intelligence building in The Hague which will host the tribunal, had invited Washington-based correspondents to discuss the tribunal at the State Department on Tuesday. The US and France, which have led the push for the creation of the tribunal, have since Hariri's 2005 killing seen relations deteriorate markedly with the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which many in Lebanon's March 14 governing coalition blame for Hariri's death. Damascus has denied any involvement and has said it will not allow its citizens to appear before the tribunal, which Syria has said could be used as a political tool against it. The US and its allies in the Middle East have been engaged since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq in a face-off for hegemony in the region against Iran and its allies, chief among them Syria. Some members of Lebanon's Syrian-backed March 8 opposition have expressed concerns that the camp led by the US will wield the tribunal for leverage in the power struggle. "The perpetrators of these crimes should already be quite concerned about, first, the broad international commitment to this tribunal," Silverberg said. "We saw major [financial] contributions from the Arab world, and really from a broad range of countries - and again this was something that has enjoyed strong support in the Security Council. So I think that whoever was responsible for these terrible crimes should know that the international community strongly supports the tribunal. Ban "has said that progress on the tribunal is irreversible, absolutely non-negotiable, irreversible, and we fully expect the tribunal to be able to conduct serious trials against whoever perpetrated these crimes." Silverberg added that she wanted the Security Council and the international community to take steps against any nation which did not work with the tribunal. "I think that would be a matter we would very much want the Security Council to be prepared to take action, to support, because it is essential that every government cooperate with this tribunal," she said. "If the prosecutor is ready to bring an indictment against any individual, that individual needs to be made available to the tribunal. So we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but we would obviously support action by the international community to make sure that every government supports the tribunal." Syria has faced pressure on a number of different fronts recently: Israel on September 6 bombed a facility in Syria that the US later said was connected to nuclear initiatives; Imad Mughniyeh, a senior commander of Syrian ally Hizbullah, was assassinated in Damascus on February 12; and the US recently deployed warships off Lebanon's coast, which many here interpreted as message to Syria.
No comments:
Post a Comment