BEIRUT, 7 April 2005 — UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen called yesterday for Lebanese elections to be held on time to avoid instability amid a Syrian pullout but said the disarming of the resistance group Hezbollah was not yet on the agenda.
As talks over crucial legislative elections due by the end of May opened between pro-Syrian loyalists and the opposition, Roed-Larsen said the polls were “the most important instrument to safeguard the stability of the country.”
The UN envoy said the elections should “take place as scheduled in a free and fair manner” in Lebanon which has been thrown into political turmoil since the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri two months ago.
He said the United Nations will later decide the “modalities and timeline” of a team to verify the completion of the Syrian pullout and was engaged in talks over the dispatching of international observers to the polls.
Roed-Larsen said he was also concerned about the spate of bombings in Beirut Christian quarters that have killed three people. “But I am equally concerned with the emergence of vigilante groups” set up to counter the attacks, he said. “There is a very small step (from) forming vigilante groups to forming militias which will be most unfortunate (against) the backdrop of the sad history of Lebanon,” he warned.
Roed-Larsen said he was “encouraged” by his meetings in Lebanon and that he would now brief UN chief Kofi Annan for his report to the Security Council due by April 15 on progress on the implementation of Resolution 1559. The Security Council resolution, passed in September, calls for an end to foreign presence and interference in Lebanon as well as the disarming of all militias.
But Roed-Larsen said “that particular requirement in the resolution has not been on the action agenda at this stage in my work as a special envoy for the implementation of the resolution.”
“We will continue our dialogue in this matter, I have primarily concentrated my efforts at this stage for the first report due later this month on the issue of Lebanon’s sovereignty, the issue of the full withdrawal of the troops and military assets and the full withdrawal of the intelligence apparatus.”
Hezbollah was theoretically the only militia allowed to retain its arms after the end of the country’s devastating 1975-1990 civil war because it was considered a resistance guerrilla movement. On his third visit to Lebanon, Roed-Larsen met yesterday with pro-Syrian leaders and opposition figures, a day after verifying with his “own eyes” the evacuation of Syria’s dreaded military intelligence headquarters in Beirut.
He also hoped that Lebanon and Syria would “shortly” establish “normal diplomatic relations ... and that this will lead to the establishment of embassies.” Syria’s role in Lebanon has been at the core of internal divisions in Lebanon where political wrangling continues over the formation of a new government and the electoral law for the upcoming polls.
In a visit that apparently surprised his host, prominent opposition leader MP Walid Jumblatt arrived late Tuesday at the residence of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a leader of the pro-Syrian camp. It was the first meeting between the two men since the assassination of Hariri, blamed by the opposition on the Lebanese regime and their political masters in Damascus.
Berri said he hoped the visit would “be the beginning of resolving what has happened” since Hariri’s killing, which led to mass protests that brought down the government and left the country politically paralyzed.
The opposition has accused the pro-Syrian camp of foot-dragging ever since Hariri’s death in order to retain its control of Parliament and not face a voter backlash over the murder. Berri said on Friday that a new government would draw up an electoral law based on larger constituencies, changes favoring the pro-Syrian camp, while the opposition wants smaller constituencies that would be more representative for minorities.
Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami, who has so far failed to bring the opposition into a national unity cabinet, was quoted in the Beirut press as saying he could announce a new government by Saturday.
Meanwhile, more than 100 Syrian military trucks left Lebanon on yesterday, carrying troops, weapons, equipment, furniture and even cows, witnesses said. It was among the biggest movements of Syrian forces across the border in a single day since Damascus began withdrawing the 14,000 troops it had in its neighbor on March 8.
The witnesses said the Syrian vehicles included armored personnel carriers on transporters. One military truck that left overnight was carrying cows.
