US announces additional $10 million for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

[News_Editor]

US announces additional $10 million for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon

2010-11-04 06:39:43 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The United States on Wednesday announced that they will contribute with an additional $10 million for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that prosecutes suspects over the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

"The United States is pleased to announce that we will transfer an additional $10 million to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. This brings total U.S. funding for the Tribunal to $30 million since its inception," said Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon is an independent court set up at the request of the Lebanese Government and with a clear UN Security Council mandate. It is in charge of prosecuting suspects in the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others.

"The establishment of the Tribunal was a clear signal that Lebanon's sovereignty is non-negotiable. We are confident that the work of the Tribunal can continue to help deter further violence and put an end to a tragic era of impunity for political assassinations in Lebanon," Rice added.

However, Ambassador Rice applauded the work and efforts demonstrated by the Special Tribunal despite the adversities faced. On Wednesday, two investigators from the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal and their interpreter were attending a pre-arranged meeting at a doctor's office in Beirut as part of the investigation when they were attacked by a mob.

"The recent attack on three Tribunal staff members in Beirut is yet another attempt to create a false choice between justice and stability in Lebanon and to prevent the independent Tribunal from carrying out its Security Council mandate. We condemn such acts and again emphasize that efforts to discredit, hinder, or influence the Tribunal's work must not be tolerated," the U.S. Representative to the UN said.

The attack was also condemned by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Secretary-General called the attacks as unacceptable acts of interference and intimidation and called on all parties stop interfering in the Special Tribunal's work and from prejudging its outcome.

"The Tribunal must continue to operate according to the highest standards of judicial independence and integrity, and we have full confidence in its ability to do so. We encourage the entire international community to continue to support the Tribunal, financially and politically."

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-04

[hammered]

The tribunal has been pretty much discredited across swathes of the world after prelimainary release of findings which later proved to be founded on nothing.

The news conference watched avidly across the arab world a few months ago also will have done nothing to encourage those peopel that the tribunal is anything like neutral as it hasnt even investigated a main suspect whose casing of the enmtire Hariri route on multiple occasions in the leading up to the assasination was released on TV together with statements by ex-spies. None of this was reported much in the west but it certainly leads to the tribunal being seen as a poltically bias and discredited by even anyone with an open mind.

There is some conjecture that Saudi and Syria have cut an unlikley but obviously practical deal to have Lebanon distance itself from the tribunal and leave Lebanon in peaxe and with a functioning goevrnment. This would pretty much destroy the triibunal even in western eyes. This is likely the response to this. This is not about who killed Hariri but politics. There hasnt even been a real investigation into the death but just a witchhunt and allegations that are even more baseless than the somewhat circumstantial evidence which was broadcast across the Arab world. NNobody will ever know who killed Hariri. Still the political games must continue but hopefully they will fail to cause the collapse of a country and a revertion to a short lived civil war which many would claim is the aim of the tribunal.