Former Syrian VP Says Hariri Threatened

The Associated Press - BEIRUT, Lebanon - Former Syrian Vice President
Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a one-time stalwart of the ruling Baath Party, said on
Friday that former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri was threatened by Syria
months before he was assassinated.
Khaddam made the claim as he declared a formal break with President Bashar
Assad in a television interview from Paris, criticizing the regime and
citing corruption and its failure to reform.
"Hariri was subjected to many threats from Syria. ...Serious things were
said. Once he was summoned to Damascus ... and spoken to in extremely harsh
words by President Bashar Assad," Khaddam said in the interview with
Al-Arabiya, the pan-Arab satellite broadcaster, his first since he left
Syria several months ago.
A U.N. probe into Hariri's killing has implicated Syria, but Damascus has
denied the allegations.
Khaddam became a Syrian vice president in 1984 and resigned in June. He was
the nominal leader in Syria for a short period after Assad's father, Hafez
Assad, died in June 2000.
Khaddam's criticism reflected serious cracks within the Damascus regime and
brought to the open a simmering power struggle within the leadership that
has played itself out in recent years in the power shifts and alliances in
Syria and in neighboring Lebanon, where Syria held sway until its troop
withdrawal in April in the uproar after Hariri's assassination.
In the interview, Khaddam was bitterly critical of the current Assad
government, saying the ruling Baath Party and other popular organizations
had been reduced to vindicating "decisions made by the president."
He claimed to have left his homeland on good terms with Assad. "There are
differences in opinions, but there was mutual respect," he said, adding that
his family was with him in Paris where he was writing a memoir. He denied
that he had been threatened and said he would return to Syria.
Nevertheless, he charged, the Syrian leadership had made many mistakes.
He quoted the Syrian president as telling Hariri, months before he was
killed: "You want to bring a (new) president in Lebanon. ... I will not
allow that. I will crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision."
Syria had dictated an extension of the presidential term of pro-Syrian
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, which Hariri opposed. The move provoked a
political crisis in Syria's tiny Mediterranean neighbor.
After the warning from Assad, Hariri left with "high blood pressure and his
nose bleeding," Khaddam said.
Khaddam, however, said he was not accusing Syria of complicity in Hariri's
Feb. 14 assassination in a massive truck bombing that killed 20 others on a
Beirut street.
He said uncovering the guilty parties was a matter for the U.N. commission
investigating the murder.
Several anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians told the U.N. commission they had
been told Assad threatened to "break Lebanon" over Hariri's head if he did
not support Damascus' decision to extend the Lahoud presidency.
In Syria, government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
But pro-government observers were quick to criticize Khaddam's disclosures.
"It is strange that he's criticizing government behavior when he was part of
it," said George Jabbour, a legislator for the Baath party. "Why now? ...
And how an official who dedicated his life to his country makes these
statements?" asked political analyst Ahmed Haj Ali.
Under intense international pressure and after massive anti-Syrian
demonstrations in Damascus, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon this
summer after entering the country in 1976 as a stabilizing force early in
the country's civil war.

Syrian Suspect Arrested in Gebran Tueni's Assassination

Military Investigating Judge Rashid Mezher issued on Tuesday an arrest warrant against a Syrian national suspected of involvement in An Nahar general manager Gebran Tueni's assassination.
Abdel Kader Abdel Kader, who rented a patch of land near the scene of the killing in eastern Beirut, was under suspicion because of phone calls he made before and after the bombing, the source said.
Another two Syrians were questioned and later released.
In a related development, a Dutch team of forensic experts is expected to arrive next week to collect and analyze more evidence from the scene of the bomb explosion that killed Tueni and his two bodyguards on December 12, An Nahar reported.
The crater and damages resulting from the bomb blast indicated that at least 60 kilograms of explosives were placed in a semicircle shape in the parked car that targeted Tueni's armored vehicle, sources told An Nahar.

Shara: Too early to discuss borders with Lebanon

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CAIRO - Syria said Tuesday it was prepared to discuss with the Lebanese side the controversial issue of their common borders but only after bilateral relations improve.

"We should not preempt issues on the agenda of bilateral ties between Syria and Lebanon," Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara told reporters during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Abul Gheit.

He was responding to a question following talks in Cairo between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

The two leaders met amid increasing public hostility in Lebanon to Syria over its alleged role in the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri and the murders of three more anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said in October that his country and Syria had opened talks on establishing diplomatic ties and demarcation of their common borders, a move supported by the international community.

Shara denied that Damascus was playing down the significance of the border issue. "These are important points, but there are more important and pressing points such as improving the climate between the two countries" he said.

A demarcation would defuse tension over the continued presence of Syrian troops in some disputed areas and would help reduce alleged arms smuggling from Syria to militants groups in Lebanon and elsewhere.

Border issues between Syria and Lebanon have wide-ranging implications, as they also involve Israel, which occupies the Shebaa Farms, a small territory seized from Syria in 1967 but now claimed by Lebanon.

Syria was the key power-broker in Lebanon for nearly three decades.

It ended its 29-year military presence there in April after the assassination of Hariri, whose murder sparked a domestic and international outcry.

The Lebanese opposition to the former pro-Syrian leadership has long called for an exchange of embassies between the two countries, which have never established diplomatic relations since their independence in the 1940s.

Lebanon shuts military passage on Syrian border

Lebanon has permanently closed a military border crossing with Syria that was in use during its military presence in the country.

A senior security official told AFP on Sunday: "The 'military lane' was permanently closed last night and we shall issue an official statement on that matter.

"Actually, since October the lane had been cancelled except for military logistics, military officials on an official mission and the head of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council. Even ministers and MPs were not using it any more.
 
"Now all those who want to go to Syria will have to go through the official borders manned by general security."

The closure comes amid tension between the two neighbours after the murder in Lebanon on Monday of Jebran Tueni, a prominent anti-Syrian journalist and politician.

Anger has been rising in Lebanon over a series of assassinations, widely blamed on Syria but denied by Damascus, since the murder in February of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister.

The special crossing, parallel to the main Masnaa border point in eastern Lebanon, was mainly used by Syrians and their Lebanese allies as well as prominent business people from the two countries.
 
 

Thousands of Lebanese mourn anti-Syrian publisher

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Lebanese bid farewell on Wednesday to anti-Syrian publisher and lawmaker Gebran Tueni, turning his funeral into an outpouring of anger against Damascus, which they blame for his murder.

Tueni's assassination on Monday -- the third political murder since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed in February -- has caused serious political rifts in Lebanon, bringing the government to the verge of collapse.

In scenes reminiscent of the mass protests that swept Beirut after Hariri's murder and forced Damascus to end a 29-year military presence in Lebanon, the crowds denounced Syria and demanded its ally, President Emile Lahoud, step down.

"We want your head, Bashar," the crowds chanted in reference to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"We are here to revolt against the oppression and barbarity that is taking away our best men," mourner Nabhan Abu Samra said.

Many thousands, most of them waving Lebanese flags, answered a call by anti-Syrian politicians for a large turnout at Tueni's funeral, carrying his flag-draped coffin on their shoulders through the streets of central Beirut to the Greek Orthodox church where a service will be held.

"All of Lebanon bids goodbye today to the martyr of free speech Gebran Tueni," said the frontpage headline of al-Mustaqbal newspaper, owned by the late Hariri.

The 48-year-old Tueni was among the most fiery critics of Damascus, publishing his biting editorials on the front-page of his an-Nahar newspaper, Lebanon's leading daily.

Many Lebanese politicians have blamed Syria for Tueni's murder, though Damascus has been quick to deny any involvement.

"Can no one say 'no' in this country without being killed?" asked Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who campaigned for Syria's withdrawal, in a call to LBC television on Tuesday night.

Gebran Tueni Perishes in Massive Car Bomb Explosion Near Beirut

Gebran Tueni, a fiery critic of Syria, was assassinated in a car-bomb explosion in Mkalles, east of Beirut Monday. He was 48.

Tueni was An Nahar's general manager and Beirut legislator.

"God have mercy on Gebran and An-Nahar will remain the beacon for freedom," Druze leader Walid Jumblat told LBCI.

Three people, including Tueni, were killed in the explosion that went off at approximately 9 am in Mkalles, media reports said. They said the blast went off as his motorcade drove through the area.

Around 30 people were wounded in the bombing which also started a large fire. At least 10 cars were destroyed, some tossed into a valley in the hilly area, the Associated Press reported.

"This is a new terrorism message," Jumblat said of the killing, which follows a series of subsequent bombings that have targeted mainly anti-Syrian officials in the past year.

At the scene Tueni's wife was in tears and refused to answer when asked by a reporter whether her husband was hurt.

Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh, who is also Gebran's uncle, threatened to resign if the cabinet did not meet by Monday evening "to demand an inquiry under the supervision of the Security Council on all the crimes committed by Syria."

Hamadeh was also targeted on October 1, 2004 in a failed assassination attempt.

An outspoken critic of Syria's role in Lebanon, Tueni had recently been living in France for fear of assassination. His columns in An-Nahar often raised the ire of the Syrians.

After ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination, Tueni played a prominent role in the leadership of the mass demonstrations that, combined with international pressure, succeeded in forcing Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April, ending a 29-year hegemony. He was elected to parliament for the first time in the last elections in June.

Tueni's grandfather, Gebran Tueni, founded An-Nahar. His father Ghassan Tueni is considered the dean of the Lebanese press, having turned the newspaper into one of the leading media institutions in the Arab world.

He is survived by his wife, Siham Asseily and his four daughters Nayla, Michelle, Gabriella and Nadia.

New Mass Graves Deepen Mass Killing Horror at Ex-Syrian HQ in Anjar

Up to five mass graves were unearthed this weekend in Anjar, the former command of Syria's military intelligence in Lebanon, blowing the lid off another atrocity of 30 years of Syrian military control and further embittering the tenuous Damascus-Beirut relations.
Local residents and anxious families of Lebanese missing in the civil war chased after the bulldozers Sunday as they plowed through new mass graves in the vicinity of Nabi Aziz, where the Syrian military kept its notorious interrogation centers.

The Lebanese media unanimously reported that it was too early to determine exactly how many people had been buried in the five locations, because most of the bodies were decomposed and forensic experts needed time to put the remains together. But conservative estimates say so far at least 40 have been exhumed.

Officially, Lebanon has refrained from directing any blame for the perceived Syrian witch hunt. But politicians and families still searching for missing loved ones are bent on seeking local and international justice. They have unanimously rejected Damascus claims that the bodies unearthed were victims of civil war fighting, or Palestinians executed by Sabri al-Banna, who goes by nom de guerre of Abu Nidal, the notorious terror mastermind who is now dead.

Gebran Tueni, An Nahar's general-manager and Beirut MP, said he would seek official explanation from the government for the Anjar atrocity as well as the mass grave recently unearthed near the Lebanese Defense Ministry in Yarze, where the remains of 17 soldiers and four civilians were dug up.

Importantly, Tueni demanded an international investigation into the case, which he likened to the ethnic cleansing massacres in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

Anjar residents last week tipped Lebanese authorities about the presence of mass graves in the vicinity, saying as many as 50 corpses were buried near the Syrian intelligence command headquarters. The digging began Friday, and by sundown Sunday, remains had been exhumed from five locations and taken for DNA testing.

An Nahar quoted Fouad Ayoub, a coroner appointed by the state prosecutor to examine the remains, as saying some of the bodies have been in the mass graves for at least 20 years.

Authorities are concentrating on the identities of the victims to ascertain whether any of the 176 kidnapped and unaccounted for since the civil war years are among them. Katayeb security chief Boutros Khawand is among the missing.

"This is the biggest proof that the crime is very big and touches the lives of hundreds of Lebanese families," said Ghazi Aad, director of Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile, better known as SOLIDE. It works for the release of Lebanese prisoners in Syrian jails and learning the fate of missing people.

Aad called for an international investigation into the mass graves and other killings allegedly carried out while Syrian troops were in Lebanon.

Amnesty: Mass Graves Exhumations Must Follow International Standards

The exhumation of bodies at newly discovered mass graves in Lebanon are not being carried out with the appropriate level of care and there are concerns that bodies may be damaged and potential evidence lost, Amnesty International said Monday.
The London-based rights group urged the Lebanese government to ensure that the evidence at the sites is properly preserved and said exhumations and investigations should be carried out in line with international standards.

Although the bodies' identities are unknown, suspicion immediately fell on Syria, which controlled Lebanon for almost three decades until it pulled out its troops from the country in April, following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A Syrian Information Ministry official on Sunday denied his country's involvement in the mass graves, saying the accusations were a "new pretext" to harm Damascus.

One Lebanese security official said some of the bodies may belong to Lebanese soldiers killed during a Syrian military offensive at the end of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

Amnesty, in its statement, urged the Lebanese government to take "immediate action to ensure that the evidence at the sites is properly preserved" and that the evidence is used to bring suspected perpetrators to justice in fair trials.

There are 17,000 Lebanese missing since the 1975-90 civil war, among them 61 soldiers. Around 176 Lebanese are also jailed in Syria, according to human rights groups.

Some 50 of their relatives staged a protest Monday near the United Nations building in downtown Beirut, where they have been camped out for months to draw attention to their plight.

While recognizing the efforts of the Lebanese authorities in exhuming the bodies, the protesters called in a statement for transparency and for the exhumation to be conducted in compliance with international norms.(AP photo shows Lebanese army forensic experts putting on their white gloves as they get ready to comb the earth in search of human remains)