January 14, 2010 - Daily Star - Analysts say resignations show tribunal losing political support

Court official insists changeover in staff won?t hamper work

By Michael Bluhm
Daily Star staff

Analysis

BEIRUT: The resignation of registrar David Tolbert will rock the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s standing, and his exit reflects the political forces snowballing to stifle the tribunal’s work, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
The tribunal announced on Tuesday that Tolbert, who arrived at the court late last August, was leaving his post in order to become president of the International Center for Transitional Justice.
A tribunal spokesman, meanwhile, said Tolbert’s departure was not unusual and would not adversely affect the court, which was not feeling any loss of political support.
On the other hand, Sari Hanafi, who teaches about transitional justice at the American University of Beirut, said Tolbert’s rapid flight from the court would serve as a signal to the international justice community that the tribunal was stagnating.
“The legitimacy of the tribunal is more and more in doubt,” Hanafi said. “This resignation will so much affect the reputation of the tribunal and how the tribunal will be able to deliver.”
Peter Foster, the tribunal’s chief of public affairs and outreach, said Tolbert’s departure did not carry any greater significance. “A changeover in staff in any tribunal or international court is fairly standard,” Foster said, adding that all international courts and tribunals had had multiple registrars. “The organization is not about one person.”
The announcement of Tolbert’s resignation came less than one week after the exit of Nick Khaldas, the Egyptian-born Australian who had led the tribunal’s investigation team as chief of prosecution. The loss of two key personnel – without any replacements having been named – will set back the tribunal’s progress, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at Notre Dame University.
“It’s going to hinder the work of the tribunal,” he said.
On the contrary, Foster said the absences of Tolbert and Khaldas would not hamper the court’s functions. “I don’t think it’s going to affect the day-to-day work of the tribunal or its ability to complete its mandate,” Foster added.
However, Hanafi said sources in the tribunal had told him that Tolbert decided to leave partially because the court had been subjugated to political concerns.
The UN Security Council established the tribunal to try suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a watershed event which led to mass demonstrations and the exit of Syrian troops from Lebanon from Lebanon after a 29-year presence. Leaders of the March 14 political coalition have long accused Syria of being behind Hariri’s killing, but Damascus has categorically denied any involvement and said the court was merely a political tool for the West to use against Syria.
“This registrar feels that there is a lot of politics going on,” Hanafi said.
“It’s become highly politicized. This is a major reason bothering the registrar.”
With the West and its Arab allies now courting Syria in order to pull Damascus away from its political partnership with Iran, Western nations are pushing the tribunal to slow down its work, Hanafi said. These political machinations helped push Tolbert to abandon the court, Hanafi added.
“The momentum is gone,” Hanafi said. Tolbert “is extremely honest. He felt that he doesn’t want to compromise his integrity.”
The tribunal’s Foster, meanwhile, said the tribunal had not witnessed any negative change in the pace of work or political backing. “The work has been pretty steady – if not increasing – since I’ve arrived,” he said.
“There’s been no disruption or slowdown with any of the resignations,” he added.
“Political winds blow back and forth. If every court were to operate on those winds, it would be pretty chaotic.”
As evidence for the continuing political support, Foster said donor nations had pledged about 90 percent of the tribunal’s $55.35-million budget for 2010.
“There’s no reason for any concern on our part that we’re not going to be able to get the funds that we need,” he added.
Hanafi, on the other hand, said tribunal staff were feeling the dwindling political commitment, and more people would be leaving the court to avoid being tainted by its poor performance. “They fear about their reputations, about their jobs,” he said. “It’s not for other opportunities, better jobs – it’s frustration with what is going on in this tribunal.”
The tribunal spokesman said, however, that “no connection whatsoever” existed between the departures of Khaldas and Tolbert.
“There’s certainly no exodus that I’m aware of,” Foster said, adding that the tribunal had just welcomed a new spokeswoman on Monday.
In Lebanon, meanwhile, the slowdown in the tribunal’s work has become apparent, and tribunal supporters in the March 14 coalition are perturbed by the court’s lack of results, said Hanafi, who spent Tuesday evening with members of Hariri’s Future Movement after the announcement of Tolbert’s resignation.
“They are so upset that this tribunal hasn’t delivered any substantial thing,” Hanafi said.
Among the Lebanese public, the tribunal has disappeared from the list of major political issues, with almost five years having elapsed since Hariri’s assassination without any culprit being named, said Karam Karam, programs director at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.
“The tribunal debate right now is not a priority anymore on the public-opinion level,” he said. “The public opinion is quite aware that this will not be resolved in the coming years.”
Indeed, even Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated former premier, rarely talks about the tribunal, Hanna said. The drive for justice has ebbed along with the fortunes of the March 14 faction, which saw founding member and Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Jumblatt defect from the bloc in early August 2009, Hanna added. Hariri, who had also pointed a finger at Syria for his father’s killing, began mending fences with Syrian President Bashar Assad as Hariri visited Damascus last month.
Overall, the tribunal simply has had to follow – and will continue to follow – developments in the US-Iran standoff, which is shaping the region’s political dynamics, Hanna said. As go relations between Syria and the US and its allies, so will go the tribunal, Hanna added.
“When you have the law and politics intermingled, politics wins,” he said.