Daily Star - UN Security Council extends mandate of Hariri probe, June 4, 2008
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
The UN Security Council on Monday voted unanimously to extend for another six months the mandate of the UN panel probing the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Resolution 1815, drafted by France, renewed the mandate, which extends from June 15, until December 31, 2008.
The UN Security Council on Monday voted unanimously to extend for another six months the mandate of the UN panel probing the 2005 murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri. Resolution 1815, drafted by France, renewed the mandate, which extends from June 15, until December 31, 2008.
But the council also stated its readiness to terminate the mandate of the panel headed by Daniel Bellemare earlier "if the commission reports that it has completed the implementation of its mandate."
The resolution said it took note of a May letter by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urging the council to back Bellemare's request for a six-month extension of the mandate.
After the adoption, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN who chairs the council this month, stressed the importance of concluding the probe.
"The Commission has a clear mandate. It is moving forward, it certainly has the support of the Security Council and our support, it's very important that there is accountability for what happened in Lebanon," he told reporters.
He stressed that this was "not only important for the sake of Lebanon, but also more broadly because political assassination is an instrument. It's a threat to international peace and security."
Last April Bellemare cautioned against expecting early indictments and urged the Security Council to give his team more time to complete its work.
In his first appearance before the council since he took office last January, the Canadian former prosecutor then disclosed that indictments in the case would not be filed immediately after the UN-backed tribunal is established.
He said the time gap ideally "should be as short as possible" but insisted that "the admissible evidence will have to be carefully and objectively considered in light of the applicable prosecution threshold." Bellemare succeeded Belgian Serge Brammertz as head of the investigation into the killing of Hariri and 22 others in a massive explosion on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
Brammertz' German predecessor Detlev Mehlis had implicated senior officials from Syria, which for three decades had been the power broker in its smaller neighbor. However, Damascus has strongly denied any involvement with Hariri's death.
The resolution said it took note of a May letter by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urging the council to back Bellemare's request for a six-month extension of the mandate.
After the adoption, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the UN who chairs the council this month, stressed the importance of concluding the probe.
"The Commission has a clear mandate. It is moving forward, it certainly has the support of the Security Council and our support, it's very important that there is accountability for what happened in Lebanon," he told reporters.
He stressed that this was "not only important for the sake of Lebanon, but also more broadly because political assassination is an instrument. It's a threat to international peace and security."
Last April Bellemare cautioned against expecting early indictments and urged the Security Council to give his team more time to complete its work.
In his first appearance before the council since he took office last January, the Canadian former prosecutor then disclosed that indictments in the case would not be filed immediately after the UN-backed tribunal is established.
He said the time gap ideally "should be as short as possible" but insisted that "the admissible evidence will have to be carefully and objectively considered in light of the applicable prosecution threshold." Bellemare succeeded Belgian Serge Brammertz as head of the investigation into the killing of Hariri and 22 others in a massive explosion on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
Brammertz' German predecessor Detlev Mehlis had implicated senior officials from Syria, which for three decades had been the power broker in its smaller neighbor. However, Damascus has strongly denied any involvement with Hariri's death.
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