The Daily Star - Gemayel: No Lebanese alternatives for STL's work - October 23, 2010

BEIRUT: Former President Amin Gemayel has said the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) was outside “the Lebanese and Arab framework,” warning that Hizbullah’s negative stance on the issue was pushing the country toward the abyss.

“The tribunal is outside the Lebanese and Arab framework. It is in the hands of the [United Nations] Security Council,” Gemayel told The Daily Star in an interview at his Phalange Party headquarters in Beirut.

“I don’t believe that any Lebanese or Arab effort could resolve this matter. There are no alternatives for it [the STL] other than issuing the indictment and proceeding with the trials.”

The dispute over the tribunal set up to try suspects in the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has plunged the country into its worst political crisis in more than two years.

Hizbullah says it expects the tribunal will indict some of its members in the assassination, describing the move as an Israeli plot to weaken its standing and push the country to a new round of sectarian violence. The group has said it would reject the indictment and hinted that the tribunal should be dissolved.

The March 14 movement, led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, say the court is not politicized and that it offers Lebanon the only chance to punish those who committed the crime, describing claims that it would charge Hizbullah members as nothing more than rumors so far.

“The international tribunal is a delicate subject,” Gemayel said. “Everyone knows its repercussions on the relations between the various components of Lebanese society because this crime, God forbid, might take on a sectarian dimension,” Gemayel said.

The veteran leader called for a meeting of leading politicians to find a way out of the stalemate. “Whatever the tribunal says, whatever the results, we should look for a cure among ourselves,” he said, adding that Syria and Saudi Arabia, which back opposing camps in Lebanon, could not settle this issue.

“Any talks on the matter without candid discussions would not be an attempt to resolve the matter, it would only be delaying the explosion and deepening the negative feelings” among the Lebanese, he said.
Asked whether the crisis could topple the government, Gemayel said: “The whole country is facing the abyss.” He blasted Hizbullah for adopting “negative and very tense rhetoric” over the issue.

“Hizbullah has not adopted any realistic or positive attitude to resolve this matter,” he added.

Gemayel also tackled the related divisive issue of “false witnesses” – witnesses who first blamed Syria and some Lebanese security officials for Hariri’s assassination but then retracted their statements to the international investigation committee.

“False witnesses are a lie created by some to camouflage the main case or to confuse the Lebanese arena and block the international court,” he said.

Hizbullah and its allies, as well as Syria, have urged Lebanese authorities

to put the “false witnesses” on trial. Gemayel reiterated March 14’s position that such a course was not possible before the tribunal issues its indictment. The government, which comprises of both camps, is still deadlocked over the issue.

Asked about the fate of March 14 as a unified front after Chouf MP Walid Jumblatt pulled out of the coalition and Hariri reconciled with Syria, Gemayel said: “Premier Hariri is our ally since and even before 2005. He is our ally today and our ally tomorrow.

“We are all committed to a clear political line, which is that of having a sovereign country.”

Gemayel, whose eldest son Pierre was gunned down in 2006, said he had no new information regarding that assassination. But he said he had recently met with an STL official, though he was not given any details because of the secrecy of the investigations.

“But the mere fact that this visit took place could indicate that maybe they had found a thread” linking the assassination to that of Hariri, he said.