U.N. Investigator Declines To Name Suspects in Assassination Case
By Benny Avni
November 29, 2007
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/67245
UNITED NATIONS — As anti-Syrian forces yesterday made a major concession in Lebanon's presidential crisis, the outgoing U.N. investigator into political assassinations in the country declined to identify new suspects in the killing spree, which many have blamed on Syrian allies.
In his last report, released yesterday, Serge Brammertz wrote that his team has identified several new persons of interest but did not name them. In Beirut, the largest bloc in the Lebanese majority government, the Future movement, agreed to support the army chief, General Michel Suleiman, as a presidential candidate. Pro-Iranian politicians led by Hezbollah did not immediately express their intentions, however, and it was not clear whether a vote would take place tomorrow, as scheduled.
At the United Nations, some diplomats expressed frustration with Mr. Brammertz's style. A Belgian who was recently appointed as prosecutor of the international tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, Mr. Brammertz is about to be replaced by a Canadian, Daniel Dellmer. In two years in office, a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said, Mr. Brammertz has failed to identify any suspect by name.
He is doing it deliberately, a U.N. official countered, adding that he was using the word deliberately as in intentionally, to avoid contaminating the case, rather than slowly.
The critics contrast Mr. Brammertz's style with that of his predecessor, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, as head of the commission, which the U.N. Security Council originally formed to investigate the February 2005 assassination of a former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. In Mr. Mehlis's first report, he named several members of Syria's ruling Assad family as suspects in the Hariri killing.
Mr. Brammertz, by contrast, said early on that he would disclose suspects' identities only to an international tribunal that would be formed to conduct trials in the Hariri assassination and related killings. The commission, Mr. Brammertz wrote in yesterday's report, deepened and broadened its understanding of the possible involvement of a number of persons of interest, including persons who have recently been identified by the commission, who were involved in aspects of the preparation and commission of the crime.
Since Mr. Brammertz became lead investigator, in January 2006, No names of have been disclosed to the Security Council, an American diplomat said yesterday.
In Lebanon, members of the Future movement, led by the late prime minister's son, Saad Hariri, said they would not oppose the presidential candidacy of General Suleiman.
As head of the army, General Suleiman has often coordinated his maneuvers with international forces stationed in the country, but he also has needed to maintain ties with Syria, whose influence in Lebanon the Future movement opposes.
Syria's overarching goals in Lebanon, diplomats say, are to uphold the flow of commerce with its much more economically viable neighbor, as well as to pressure its allies to block the formation of the international tribunal. Such a judiciary body would likely increase international pressure on the Assad regime.