Hariri tribunal gets under way in The Hague
By Mariette Le Roux
Yahoo News
March 1, 2009
Original Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090302/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonuntribunal_20090302005606;_ylt=As8hFT7uTsBR8JHPgsKsHPaaOrgF
THE HAGUE (AFP) – A landmark international tribunal to try the suspected killers of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri opened here Sunday with pledges to provide justice to victims of terrorism.
At a ceremony to inaugurate the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, chief prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said it constituted the world's first anti-terrorist court.
By the very nature of its mandate, the STL is the first international anti-terrorist tribunal, he told VIPs, diplomats and journalists.
Saad Hariri, whose father was killed in the massive Beirut car bombing in February 2005 along with 22 other people, hailed the opening of the court as a historic day for his country.
Today the flag of justice for Lebanon is being raised in The Hague. It is a historic date.
March 1 is the fruit of the efforts of all Lebanese people who supported the establishment of the court and who refused to yield to threats and terror, he said in a statement issued in Beirut.
Bellemare said he would apply to the Lebanese government within 60 days, as determined by the tribunal's rules, to have evidence and suspects transferred. Before this can happen, the tribunal's final rules of procedure and evidence had to be adopted by the judges, a process expected to take a few weeks.
Beirut, which has had four generals in custody for nearly four years over the Hariri killing, has no deadline to respond to the prosecutor's request.
The four generals include the former head of the presidential guard. Three others, civilians suspected of withholding information and misleading the ongoing probe, were freed on bail by Lebanon on Wednesday.
The Canadian prosecutor could give no indication of a date for the tribunal's first trial. Indictments will be filed when I am satisfied I have enough evidence, he said.
Bellemare said the court was set up not to seek revenge, but a justice that is humane, fair, transparent and credible. A justice that ensures that everybody is treated with dignity and respect.
That point was reinforced by Saad Hariri, who is leader of the anti-Syrian majority in Lebanon's parliament.
The Hague tribunal will be neither a tool of vengeance nor a tool of extortion or compromise at the expense of Lebanon's dignity and freedom, he said.
It will punish the criminals but at the same time it will be a tool for the protection of Lebanon, its leaders, its thinkers, its people and its democratic system against organised crime.
The tribunal, located in the suburb of Leidschendam, was created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution and will apply Lebanese law. It has an initial, renewable, three-year mandate.
The identities of its 11 judges, four of them Lebanese, are being kept secret for security reasons.
The opening ceremony was held at a former gymnasium at the headquarters of the Dutch intelligence service, where a courtroom will be built by year-end.
The event started with a minute of silence for Hariri and the others who died with him in the 2005 Beirut bombing. 
In Beirut, Lebanese leaders laid wreaths on the tombs of Rafiq Hariri and other leading figures killed in attacks since 2005 as part of a series of ceremonies to mark the establishment of the tribunal. 
The attack on Hariri on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence. 
In its early stages, the UN probe into the murder implicated top officials close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has consistently denied any involvement. 
A lawyer for one of the generals held in connection with the crime, Akram Azuri, said last week the tribunal held no fear for the suspects. 
They have a clear conscience, they have no problem with the tribunal. They are impatient for it to get under way.