UN Hariri inquiry makes progress but names no names

By Irwin Arieff 
June 10, 2006
Reuters
Original Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10208345.htm


UNITED NATIONS, June 10 (Reuters) - The U.N. inquiry into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Saturday reported considerable progress in its work but gave no indication it knew yet who was behind the crime. 
The report by the commission led by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said Syrian cooperation, which investigators previously faulted, was now generally satisfactory, but it added that continued cooperation remains crucial. 
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Vice President Farouq al-Shara were interviewed on April 25 in Damascus and both provided answers useful to the investigation, it said. 
Earlier reports cited evidence Assad had personally threatened Hariri, while investigators said Shara gave them false statements. 
Six other witnesses had also been questioned in Syria and more such interviews were planned, along with analysis of the testimony to date, to determine the validity and depth of the Syrian responses, the report said. 
The commission, in its fourth progress report to the U.N. Security Council, also said it supported a Lebanese government request the inquiry be extended for up to one more year. 
Brammertz is scheduled to brief the 15-nation Security Council on the report on Wednesday, a day before the expiration of his commission's mandate. A council vote before the end of Thursday would be required to renew the mandate. 
Hariri, who became a critic of Syria's decades-long domination of Lebanon shortly before his death, was killed, along with 22 others, by a huge bomb in broad daylight on Feb. 14, 2005, as his motorcade traveled along a Beirut street. 
The attack took place after he accused Syria of meddling in internal Lebanese politics. Mass street protests followed and Lebanese opposition politicians blamed Damascus for his death. 
'FUNDAMENTAL BUILDING BLOCKS' 
Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades, denied any involvement in the killing but agreed shortly afterward to withdraw its troops from Lebanon under international pressure. 
The Security Council ordered an outside inquiry into the murder in December 2005 after a U.N. fact-finding mission concluded a Lebanese investigation would lack credibility. 
In its new report, the commission said the case's fundamental building blocks, including the fatal blast, the carrier of the explosive device and its means of delivery were largely understood and provide the basis for investigative progress with regard to those who perpetrated the crime. 
But it named no suspects, saying only additional investigation would lead to the strengthening or exclusion of some of the existing case hypotheses. 
It said an extensive crime scene review appeared to affirm earlier conclusions the explosive was carried by a Mitsubishi truck and detonated by an individual either inside or right in front of the truck. 
The likely bomber's remains had been recovered but it is not yet clear whether the individual was a suicide bomber, the report said. It remains to be established whether the person detonated the device willingly or was coerced into doing so. 
Determining where the truck came from remained a top priority of the probe, the commission said. An earlier report said the truck had been seen in Syria just before the killing and had been driven into Lebanon by a Syrian colonel. 
Investigators said the fatal blast was caused by a mix of TNT and PETN and perhaps also RDX plastic explosives, equivalent to at least 2,640 pounds (1,200 kg) of TNT. 
With a charge of that size, a fatal result was elevated to almost 'guarantee level,' the commission said. 
The Brammertz commission is also looking into 14 other bomb attacks in Lebanon, to determine whether they were linked to the Hariri assassination. Its report said the cases can be linked in a number of different ways, but there was as yet insufficient evidence to allow the perpetrators to be identified and linked.