The UN commission investigating the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri still believes "political motivation" spurred his killing, and investigators have recently unearthed "evidence" of the network that carried out his assassination, said commission chief Daniel Bellemare in his report to the UN Security Council Tuesday. Bellemare, who took over the investigation on January 1, said he wanted to "clarify" new developments in the case, after the commission's March 28 report said a "criminal network" stood behind Hariri's killing, a phrase which provoked rampant speculation that the investigation's direction had changed. "The direction of the investigation has NOT changed, and the commission is still investigating crimes that are politically motivated," Bellemare wrote in his report to the UN Security Council, the first by the Canadian prosecutor since replacing Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz as head of the Independent International Investigation Commission. "While previous reports have referred to the hypothesis of a network, what is new this time is that we now have the evidence of the existence of such a network and of its links."
Former commission head Detlev Mehlis had made comments implicating Syria in the February 2005 car bombing on Beirut's seafront that killed Hariri and 22 others, while Damascus has long denied any involvement in the assassination and has said Syria would not allow its citizens to appear before the prospective UN tribunal to try suspects in the crime. Hariri's assassination sparked mass protests in Lebanon which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 29 years.
Bellemare also said the commission would stand up to any attempts to exert political influence over the investigation, one week after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the tribunal - where Bellemare will serve as prosecutor - had been used as a political tool against Damascus. Moallem told ANB television on March 31 that Syria had received and rejected "bargain offers" to terminate the court in exchange for expediting a presidential election in Lebanon.
"The commission will yield to no pressure, political or otherwise, and the identification of suspects will be based on sound legal standards supported by concrete evidence," the probe-commission chief said.
Bellemare also addressed the length of the investigation, requesting that the Security Council extend the commission's mandate beyond its June 15 term. He did not specify when he would submit indictments to the nascent tribunal, saying only that the indictments should not lag behind the establishment of the tribunal. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, has said that the tribunal will not officially come into being until the investigation makes "sufficient headway," while Mehlis in an interview earlier this year questioned how much progress Brammertz had made in his two years at the helm of the commission.
"I will only state that the filing of eventual indictments will not be immediate after the establishment of the tribunal," Bellemare said. "No one can predict or dictate how long this process will take ... Ideally, the time between the establishment of the operations of the tribunal and the eventual filing of indictments should be as short as possible.
"Any illusion of immediacy must be dispelled. Our progress is neither slow nor immediate: It is deliberate."
The commission's next steps will be to continue to collect more evidence on the network behind Hariri's killing, Bellemare added. The investigation has gathered evidence that the "criminal network" existed before Hariri's killing, conducted surveillance of the former five-time premier, was operative on the day of the assassination and that parts of the network continued to function after the crime, Bellemare said.
The commission had previously established that a suicide bomber had set off the nearly 1 ton of explosives that killed Hariri. Bellemare did not mention witnesses, but France said Tuesday that Syrian national Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq, apparently a key witness, had "disappeared" while under close watch in France.
"I'm sorry for that, and I don't know the conditions for his disappearance," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Bellemare also did not evaluate the cooperation the commission has received from nations outside Lebanon, saying only that countries could contact investigators and did not need to wait for requests for assistance. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was quoted in Syria's Al-Thawra newspaper as saying Damascus "has cooperated in a positive manner with the international investigation."
In his report to the Security Council, Bellemare did prod the Lebanese authorities to ask more quickly for help in their investigations into political violence. In addition to the Hariri killing, the commission is also participating in looking into 19 other assassinations and incidents of violence believed to be politically motivated.
"The commission would like to note, however, that the sooner its assistance is requested [by the Lebanese], the more likely this technical assistance can be meaningful," Bellemare said.
He noted that the commission's workload continues to increase as the assassinations plaguing Lebanon fail to subside, but he said the investigators were determined to resolve the crimes and end the cycle of political violence. The commission has taken on the recent assassinations of Lebanese Armed Forces operations head General Francois al-Hajj on December 13, 2007, and terrorism investigator and Internal Security Forces Major Wissam Eid on January 25 of this year.
"Each attack increases the resolve of the men and women of the more than 60 countries that have answered the call for help and who are fully committed to bringing an end to impunity in Lebanon," Bellemare said. "Any unnecessary delay in finding the truth and bringing the perpetrators to justice must be avoided.
"With the continued assistance of [UN] member states and the ongoing support of the Lebanese authorities, I can assure you that no effort will be spared to expedite the process as much as is humanly possible."
Former commission head Detlev Mehlis had made comments implicating Syria in the February 2005 car bombing on Beirut's seafront that killed Hariri and 22 others, while Damascus has long denied any involvement in the assassination and has said Syria would not allow its citizens to appear before the prospective UN tribunal to try suspects in the crime. Hariri's assassination sparked mass protests in Lebanon which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon after 29 years.
Bellemare also said the commission would stand up to any attempts to exert political influence over the investigation, one week after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said the tribunal - where Bellemare will serve as prosecutor - had been used as a political tool against Damascus. Moallem told ANB television on March 31 that Syria had received and rejected "bargain offers" to terminate the court in exchange for expediting a presidential election in Lebanon.
"The commission will yield to no pressure, political or otherwise, and the identification of suspects will be based on sound legal standards supported by concrete evidence," the probe-commission chief said.
Bellemare also addressed the length of the investigation, requesting that the Security Council extend the commission's mandate beyond its June 15 term. He did not specify when he would submit indictments to the nascent tribunal, saying only that the indictments should not lag behind the establishment of the tribunal. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, has said that the tribunal will not officially come into being until the investigation makes "sufficient headway," while Mehlis in an interview earlier this year questioned how much progress Brammertz had made in his two years at the helm of the commission.
"I will only state that the filing of eventual indictments will not be immediate after the establishment of the tribunal," Bellemare said. "No one can predict or dictate how long this process will take ... Ideally, the time between the establishment of the operations of the tribunal and the eventual filing of indictments should be as short as possible.
"Any illusion of immediacy must be dispelled. Our progress is neither slow nor immediate: It is deliberate."
The commission's next steps will be to continue to collect more evidence on the network behind Hariri's killing, Bellemare added. The investigation has gathered evidence that the "criminal network" existed before Hariri's killing, conducted surveillance of the former five-time premier, was operative on the day of the assassination and that parts of the network continued to function after the crime, Bellemare said.
The commission had previously established that a suicide bomber had set off the nearly 1 ton of explosives that killed Hariri. Bellemare did not mention witnesses, but France said Tuesday that Syrian national Mohammad Zuhair Siddiq, apparently a key witness, had "disappeared" while under close watch in France.
"I'm sorry for that, and I don't know the conditions for his disappearance," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Bellemare also did not evaluate the cooperation the commission has received from nations outside Lebanon, saying only that countries could contact investigators and did not need to wait for requests for assistance. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was quoted in Syria's Al-Thawra newspaper as saying Damascus "has cooperated in a positive manner with the international investigation."
In his report to the Security Council, Bellemare did prod the Lebanese authorities to ask more quickly for help in their investigations into political violence. In addition to the Hariri killing, the commission is also participating in looking into 19 other assassinations and incidents of violence believed to be politically motivated.
"The commission would like to note, however, that the sooner its assistance is requested [by the Lebanese], the more likely this technical assistance can be meaningful," Bellemare said.
He noted that the commission's workload continues to increase as the assassinations plaguing Lebanon fail to subside, but he said the investigators were determined to resolve the crimes and end the cycle of political violence. The commission has taken on the recent assassinations of Lebanese Armed Forces operations head General Francois al-Hajj on December 13, 2007, and terrorism investigator and Internal Security Forces Major Wissam Eid on January 25 of this year.
"Each attack increases the resolve of the men and women of the more than 60 countries that have answered the call for help and who are fully committed to bringing an end to impunity in Lebanon," Bellemare said. "Any unnecessary delay in finding the truth and bringing the perpetrators to justice must be avoided.
"With the continued assistance of [UN] member states and the ongoing support of the Lebanese authorities, I can assure you that no effort will be spared to expedite the process as much as is humanly possible."
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