Sparing Lebanon Further Bloodshed

By Adib Farha* - Senior Policy Adviser of the Lebanese Information Center and the American Lebanese Coalition

May 3, 2007

 

Wichita, Kansas, May 3, 2007- Efforts to prevent the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from responding to the request from Lebanon’s democratic government for the establishment of a tribunal of international character to try those who are accused of the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others must not succeed.  US and international support is needed to enable the Lebanese people to learn the truth behind this crime and to put to an end forever political assassination as a means to deny Lebanon its sovereignty and independence.

 On 29 March 2006, UNSC Resolution 1664 instructed the Secretary General of the United Nations to negotiate an agreement with the Government of Lebanon aimed at establishing the Tribunal. That Resolution was later reaffirmed in three UNSC presidential statements- the unanimous voice of the 15 member Security Council-, reaffirmed that resolution and aimed to deter further acts of terrorism. Sadly, the killings have not stopped and the Lebanese people have watched in horror as their country’s most admired voices for democracy have been targeted and killed.

Lebanese political groups allied with those suspected of these killings have undertaken a series of actions to destabilize the country, including:

• Preventing the Lebanese Parliament from meeting as required by the country’s constitution to prevent its members from endorsing the establishment of the Tribunal,
• Diluting the jurisdiction and the powers of the Tribunal to protect those who have carried out these acts of terrorism and to respond to Lebanese groups afraid that their own misdeeds may also be subject to the tribunal (a fallacious assumption from the beginning)
• Stalling the establishment of the Tribunal with the hope that regional political developments may force members of the UNSC to abandon their support for it.
• Trying to force a collapse of the legitimate and constitutional Government of Lebanon:  Five members of the Government who are allies of the Syrian and of the Iranian regimes tendered their resignation in an effort to coerce the Prime Minister and his Government into resigning.
• Paralyzing economic growth and provoking civic strife:  The opposition’s sit-in in Beirut’s central district that began on December 1, 2006 continues to undermine Lebanon’s economic recovery after the war.  More than 70 businesses have closed with 500 jobs lost.  

Those responsible for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and of the others will stop at nothing to prevent the Tribunal from becoming a reality, including further acts of terrorism, precipitating renewed civil war, paralyzing the economy, and creating a power vacuum that would throw the country into chaos and into anarchy.

The establishment of the Tribunal would:  

• Uphold international justice and the moral obligation of the international community to do so.

• Reiterate and reinforce the credibility and the impartiality of international law.

• Protect peace and stability in Lebanon by preventing further assassinations. 

• Decrease tension in Lebanon, by taking the issue of the Tribunal "off the table" of Lebanese internal discussion.

• Respect the will of the majority of the Lebanese people as expressed by the position presented to the UN Secretary General through his Personal Representative in Lebanon in a letter signed by 70 out of 128 Members of Parliament.

The United Nations Security Council should move without further delay to implement all relevant UNSC resolutions and impose any and all powers within the United Nations Charter to expedite the enactment of the Tribunal and prevent the dire consequences of the tenuous and dangerous status quo in Lebanon.

If Lebanon’s democratic institutions are prevented through coercion, abuse of power or constitutional shenanigans from endorsing the Tribunal, the Tribunal may have to be established pursuant to Chapter VII of the said Charter.  

Lebanon must be spared further bloodshed.

 

*Adib Farha is the Senior Policy Adviser of the American Lebanese Coalition and the Lebanese Information Center.  He had been an adviser to Prime Minister Fouad Siniora when Mr. Siniora was Lebanon’s Minister of Finance.

 

 

© 2007 Lebanese Information Center – www.licus.org

 

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