BEIRUT, 20 February 2005 — Lebanon’s embattled pro-Syrian government said yesterday that it wanted an explanation from the United Nations of its decision to appoint a commission of inquiry into the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri and hit out at France over opposition calls for an “uprising”.
Defense Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said his government was poised to boycott the UN probe, a move likely to put Lebanon on a collision course with both the former mandatory power and the United States, which have demanded an independent investigation into the bombing, in which 14 other people also died.
The decision to protest to the United Nations followed a meeting between Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, Justice Minister Adnan Addoum and presidential adviser Georges Dib, a Foreign Ministry official said. Asked earlier if the government would work with the UN inquiry to be headed by senior Irish police officer Deputy Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, the defense minister said: “I do not think so.”
“This issue was proposed by the opposition and we did not agree on that,” Mrad told state television, complaining that that the government had not even been notified by the world body as to the commission’s terms of reference. He took particular issue with Fitgerald’s appointment, saying that Beirut should have been given a veto over the choice.
“This issue is up to the council of ministers and chiefly the prime minister,” he said. More than 40 of Lebanon’s 128 MPs called on the international community Friday to back their peaceful “uprising for independence” and accused the government and its political masters in Damascus of having a hand in Hariri’s assassination.
Prime Minister Omar Karameh struck back, accusing the opposition of “planning a coup d’etat” but adding that his government remained open to “dialogue”. Information Minister Elie Firzli accused French President Jacques Chirac, who attended Hariri’s private funeral here Wednesday, of having a direct hand in the opposition’s campaign. “Chirac made himself a direct party to lead the battle on the Lebanese scene,” Firzli charged.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese turned out for Hariri’s funeral and the opposition has mounted daily protests accusing Syria of being behind the killing and demanding that its 14,000 troops go home. The youth wings of the main opposition parties called for a new mass rally at the bomb scene on the Beirut seafront tomorrow.
At Lebanon’s request, police in Australia spoke to 10 people about whether they had information on the blast, but none was charged or detained, an Australian Federal Police official said. Lebanon’s justice minister said airport authorities became suspicious after six people left on a flight to Sydney with no baggage shortly after Hariri’s assassination.
