Big Powers Split on U.N. Court to Try Hariri Killers 
Reuters
November 2, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-lebanon-un-tribunal.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Major powers on the U.N. Security Council are divided over plans for a special court to try suspects in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, diplomats said on Thursday.
The dispute reflects divisions between the Lebanese government, the majority of which is backed by Washington, and Syria, a Russian ally that Washington and many Lebanese suspect of having orchestrated Hariri's assassination in 2005.
Russia wants the council to pick the international court's judges, while the other four permanent members -- the United States, Britain, China and France -- argue they should be chosen by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, according to U.N. diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity.
The four powers argue that allowing the council to pick the judges would give the permanent members a veto over the selections, threatening to politicize the process, the diplomats said.
The other main unsettled question is the timing of the court's establishment. The Lebanese government wants the tribunal in place as soon as possible while pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, Hezbollah and others want to wait until the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's death is over.
Annan is expected to submit a report to the 15-nation council this month setting out his recommendations for the tribunal's workings and structure.
Syria has been tight-lipped on the deliberations.
Annan on Wednesday called envoys from the permanent five council members to his office to press them, without success, to agree among themselves on how to resolve the issues.
Hariri was killed in a February 14, 2005, truck bombing in Beirut that is under investigation by a U.N. commission led by Belgian Serge Brammertz.
He was killed shortly after speaking out against Syria's decades-long domination of Lebanon, and his murder was followed by 14 other attacks that killed or wounded anti-Syrian politicians and journalists.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora asked Annan last December for help in bringing the killers to justice once they were identified. Annan then asked U.N. legal counsel Nicolas Michel to discuss the details of an international court with Beirut.