BEIRUT, 1 June 2007 — The UN vote to set up an international court to try suspects in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was welcomed by his supporters yesterday but it stirred up fears of more instability in the deeply divided country.
The legally binding resolution, which was narrowly approved by the UN Security Council late on Wednesday despite five abstentions, sets a June 10 deadline for an agreement on the tribunal to come into force.
On the streets of Beirut, Hariri supporters set off fireworks and celebratory gunfire, voicing hope the court will finally uncover the truth of the 2005 murder of the popular billionaire prime minister. “It is a historic moment... the court is not about vendettas, but about justice for all,” said Hariri’s MP son Saad, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority. He described the vote as “an opportunity for all Lebanese to unite.”
But Hezbollah blasted the vote as illegal and “an aggressive interference in (Lebanon’s) internal affairs.”
“This is a blatant violation which makes the resolution illegal and illegitimate both nationally and internationally,” it said. Syria, Lebanon’s former power broker which has been widely blamed for the killing, and its allies in Beirut said the vote smacked of foreign meddling.
Ten of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favor of Resolution 1757, with veto-wielding members Russia and China as well as South Africa, Indonesia and Qatar — three nonpermanent members — abstaining.
Hariri and 22 other people were killed in a massive truck bombing on the Beirut seafront in February 2005, triggering a groundswell of domestic and international protests that forced Syria to end nearly 30 years of military domination.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said a trial would allow for “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” to be revealed, saying the court is “not directed against anyone and especially not sister Syria.”
Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud said the Security Council’s move could prove divisive. “We hope the tribunal of international character will not be, in the way in which its statutes have been approved, a reason for more distance between the Lebanese,” he said.
Efforts to set up the tribunal have been at the heart of a deep rift between pro-Syrian politicians and others who see the court as a means to curb Syrian influence in Lebanon.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, another ally of Syria, has refused to convene the assembly to vote on the court statutes because he contests the legitimacy of the government, which is controlled by anti-Syrian leaders and backed by Western states.
Berri said the UN vote had ignored Lebanon’s constitution and the need for Lebanese consensus. “You have picked internationalization instead of the state,” Berri said.
Saad Hariri said opposition leaders, including Berri and Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah, were being threatened by Syria and coerced into opposing the tribunal. “What we would like to see the opposition do is to stop being afraid,” he said. “What kills me is that a party like Hezbollah is not afraid of Israel but they are afraid of Syria.”
