Netherlands to host Hariri tribunal

AP on Yahoo ^ | 8/17/07 | Edith M. Lederer - ap

[NormsRevenge]

UNITED NATIONS - The Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the United Nations announced Friday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will send a delegation to the Netherlands in the coming weeks to discuss arrangements, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

A deeply divided U.N. Security Council approved a resolution on May 30 to unilaterally establish an international tribunal after the speaker of the Lebanese parliament refused to call a session to have members ratify the statutes to create it. The vote was 10-0 with major powers Russia and China among the five abstentions.

The resolution gave the Lebanese parliament until June 10 to act. When it didn't, the U.N.-Lebanon agreement automatically entered into force, creating a tribunal outside Lebanon with a majority of international judges and an international prosecutor. Council diplomats have said that establishing the court could take a year.

The suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut in February 2005 sparked huge protests against Syria, which was widely seen as culpable. Syria denied involvement but was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year presence.

The issue of an international tribunal has since fueled a deep political conflict between Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed, Hezbollah-led opposition. The conflict has taken on an increasingly sectarian tone and erupted into street battles, leaving over a dozen dead and many injured in recent months.

The Netherlands already hosts the U.N.'s highest judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Dutch radio Thursday that the Netherlands will insist as a condition for hosting the Lebanon tribunal that those convicted serve their sentences in another country. Verhagen said the Netherlands also wants assurances of the Lebanon tribunal's funding.