BEIRUT, 18 March 2005 — The Lebanese security chief yesterday offered to stand trial to clear allegations of negligence in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Jamil Al-Sayyed, head of the General Security Directorate, however, rejected opposition calls for intelligence officers to quit, saying they would do so only if the opposition won power.
“All chiefs of the security organs are ready to stand trial because we don’t have any secrets,” he told a news conference.
“I have decided, on behalf of all those chiefs, to start legal proceedings against ourselves on the charges published and made through the media of shortcomings, negligence, complicity, cover-up or involvement (in Hariri’s assassination),” he said.
“We are ready to bear the consequences.”
Opposition leaders have called on top security officials, all close to Syria, to step down, saying they could be involved in the Feb. 14 bombing that killed Hariri. The opposition has blamed the blast on Syria or its local allies in Lebanon. Damascus condemned the killing and denied any involvement.
“I say to those who are accusing us and demanding we resign or get sacked that if you want us to resign because you won, we are ready to resign voluntarily once you actually win,” Sayyed said.
Syria’s army and intelligence agents yesterday completed the first phase of their pullback to eastern Lebanon and Syria. The Syrian withdrawal comes ahead of Tuesday’s summit of Arab leaders in Algeria. Syrian and Lebanon agreed earlier this month that Syrian troops and intelligence agents would redeploy in the eastern Bekaa Valley or withdraw to Syria before the end of the month.
A senior Lebanese security source said 8,000 to 10,000 Syrian troops remained in the eastern Bekaa Valley while 4,000 to 6,000 had returned home. A joint Lebanese-Syrian committee was expected to meet in early April to discuss the future of the troops in the Bekaa, he said. Witnesses said the last two Syrian intelligence centers in the coastal city of Tripoli were completely emptied at dawn. They were among the last to be vacated in northern Lebanon.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expects Syria to withdraw all its troops from Lebanon before Lebanese parliamentary elections in April and May, marking the first time he has set a specific timetable for Damascus.
Annan’s demand was released in a written statement after the secretary-general met with his special envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, who recently visited the region as part of efforts to get Syria to adhere to UN Security Council Resolution 1559 demanding Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
Annan made explicit in the statement that the withdrawal would include “the intelligence apparatus and military assets.” His call echoed one from US President George W. Bush, who also has called on Syria to withdraw all its troops before the elections.
“The secretary-general further stressed the great importance that these elections be free and fair and take place as schedule,” Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said.
Speaking to reporters later, Roed-Larsen pointedly would not say whether Syria had agreed to the timetable set out by Annan.
