UN: Syria, Lebanon involved in slaying (AP) Updated: 2005-10-21 09:32
A U.N. investigation concluded that high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese security
officials were involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri, according to a report released Thursday.
The strongly worded report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis said the two
nations' intelligence services kept tabs on Hariri before his assassination by
wiretapping his phone, and there was evidence a telecommunications antenna was
jammed near the scene of the car bomb that killed him and 20 others on Feb. 14.
The decision to assassinate Hariri "could not have been taken without the
approval of top-ranked Syrian security officials and could not have been further
organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security
services," the report said.
U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis, left, holds a
copy of the report on the assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik
Hariri as he arrives for a meeting with United Nations Secretary General
Kofi Annan, right, in Annan's office at the United Nations headquarters,
Thursday Oct. 20, 2005.[AP] | The U.N. Security
Council was to discuss the report Tuesday. The United States and France earlier
prepared resolutions critical of Syria over the assassination and alleged arms
funneling to Lebanese militias, a U.S. official and two U.N. diplomats have
said.
The report quotes a Syrian witness living in Lebanon who claimed to have
worked for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon as naming several officials who
conspired to assassinate Hariri. They included Brig. Gen. Rustum Ghazale, the
last Syrian intelligence chief in Lebanon who was in charge when Hariri was
assassinated, and Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan, who was Lebanese commander of the
Presidential Guards Brigade at the time of the assassination.
Mehlis' team had already named Hamdan and three other Lebanese generals, all
close to Syria, as suspects in the assassination, and Lebanon has arrested them.
The report did not recommend any other arrests, but it called for the
investigation to be extended with Lebanese judicial and security authorities in
the lead.
Mehlis' 53-page report accused Syrian authorities of trying to mislead his
investigation, and directly accused Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa of lying
in a letter sent to his commission.
The commission said Syria's cooperation in form — but not substance — "has
impeded the investigation and made it difficult to follow leads established by
the evidence collected from a variety of sources."
"If the investigation is to be completed, it is essential that the government
of Syria fully cooperate with the investigating authorities, including by
allowing interviews to be held outside Syria and for interviewees not to be
accompanied by Syrian officials," it said.
In a letter accompanying the report, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said
he would extend Mehlis' investigation until Dec. 15, which would allow the team
to continue its work and help the Lebanese authorities.
The U.N. Security Council gave the probe a three-month mandate when it began
its work on June 16 but said it could be extended for three more months if
necessary. In August, Mehlis received an extension beyond the original Sept. 15
deadline.
Several lines of investigation still need to be pursued, Mehlis said. They
include jamming devices in Hariri's convoy that were functioning at the time of
the bombing. It appears there was interference with a telecommunication antenna
at the crime scene at the time Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb, Mehlis
wrote.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the United States would have no immediate
comment and would decide what to do next only after it had read the report and
consulted with "other interested governments."
"We've obvouisly considered various contingencies but no final decision will
be made until we now review the report," Bolton said.
Mehlis' findings come before another report to the council from Terje
Roed-Larsen, the U.N. special envoy on Lebanon-Syria about disarming Lebanese
militias. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it will be delayed until late
next week to avoid "congestion."
In Lebanon, authorities had increased security ahead of the report's
findings. Many there blame Syria for the Feb. 14 assassination of Hariri, a
former prime minister whose motorcade was bombed on a Beirut street, killing him
and 20 others. Syria has denied involvement and so have the four Lebanese
generals.
Mehlis said the most likely scenario for the activation of the explosives was
a suicide bomber. A slightly less likely possibility was a remote controlled
device, he said.
Hariri's death led to demonstrations against Syria and magnified the
international pressure on Damascus to withdraw its troops, which it eventually
did. The Security Council approved a probe into Hariri's assassination on April
8.
The report said a Syrian witness living in Lebanon who claimed to have worked
for Syrian intelligence in Lebanon told the commission that "senior Lebanese and
Syrian officials decided to assassinate Rafik Hariri" about two weeks after the
U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution in September 2004 demanding the
withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon.
The witness, who was not identified, claimed a senior Lebanese security
official went to Syria several times to plan the crime. At the beginning of
January 2005, a high-ranking Syrian officer posted in Lebanon told the witness
that "Hariri was a big problem to Syria."
"Approximately a month later the officer told the witness that there soon
would be an `earthquake' that would re-write the history of Lebanon," the report
said.
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