Global Policy Forum

By Colum Lynchr

Syria has interfered with a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri by burning intelligence archives and intimidating a key witness who had tied senior Syrian officials to the killing, according to testimony made public Monday by U.N. investigators.

The investigators released their second report Monday. It said new interviews have provided further "probable cause" to conclude that senior Syrian and Lebanese officials plotted and carried out the Valentine's Day assassination of Hariri and 22 others in a car bombing in Beirut. The 25-page report, which followed an initial report in October, cited new testimony linking an unnamed "high-level" Syrian official to a campaign to "create public disorder" in Lebanon by providing arms and ammunition to provocateurs in the days after Hariri's death.

German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who headed the inquiry, said the probe should continue, and the report's findings set the stage for a renewed U.S. push for sanctions against Damascus. But Washington's key diplomatic partner in this arena, France, considers the findings not yet conclusive enough to justify an explicit threat of sanctions, particularly since Syria has allowed senior officials to be interviewed by U.N. investigators outside the country.

France prepared a draft resolution last week that accused Syria of not "providing full and unconditional cooperation" to investigators but stopped short of threatening new sanctions. U.S. officials have pressed the French to include punitive measures against Syria for not cooperating fully. A revised resolution, which is under negotiation by the United States, France and Britain, could be presented Tuesday evening, after Mehlis's briefing to the council, according to France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere.

"It's very disturbing," John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said of the report before he attended a Security Council meeting convened to condemn Monday's assassination in Beirut of a prominent Lebanese journalist, Gibran Tueni, who had provided testimony to Mehlis. "Commissioner Mehlis said the evidence continues to point to high-level Syrian involvement and high-level involvement by Lebanese security officials in the Hariri assassination."

Mehlis's October report included allegations that Hariri's assassination was masterminded by those in the inner circle of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including his brother, Maher, and his powerful brother-in-law, Brig. Gen. Asef Shawkat, Syria's intelligence chief. Hariri was an outspoken critic of Syria, which for decades had dominated Lebanon politically through a prominent intelligence and military presence there.

Syria has denied involvement in the assassination. On Monday, Syria's U.N. ambassador, Fayssal Mekdad, defended his government's role in the probe. "We think it is unfair," Mekdad said of the report. "From our side, we have fully cooperated with Mr. Mehlis according to his agenda. In fact, if there was any delay it was on his part; it was not on our part." Mehlis said Damascus had provided limited, though vital, cooperation, permitting the commission to interview key witnesses inside Syria and in Vienna in recent weeks. Damascus has also committed to allowing U.N. investigators to question Shawkat, according to U.S. and U.N. diplomats.

The report's release comes weeks after Syrian authorities began questioning the credibility of Mehlis's inquiry. A key witness, Hussam Taher Hussam, recanted his statements that senior Syrian officials helped plot the assassination, asserting that he had been threatened and was offered bribes by Lebanese opponents of the Syrian government. Mehlis said Monday that Syrian authorities had "arrested and threatened" some of Hussam's relatives in Syria to pressure him to recant his testimony. "Preliminary investigation leads to a conclusion that Mr. Hussam is being manipulated by the Syrian authorities," he wrote. Mehlis said that Syria's behavior raises "serious questions" about its commitment to investigate the slaying. "This was, at the least, an attempt to hinder the investigation internally and procedurally," the report said.

The report asserted that two Syrian suspects interviewed in Vienna on Dec. 5-7 indicated "that all Syrian intelligence documents concerning Lebanon had been burned." A senior Syrian official also told Mehlis's team earlier this month that "no material regarding the assassination of Mr. Hariri had been found in Syrian intelligence archives." Mehlis's report said one "credible," unidentified witness had particularly strengthened his case. The source supplied "detailed information" -- including a claim that Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services recruited special agents to carry out the killing -- that "points directly at perpetrators, sponsors and organizers of an organized operation aiming at killing Mr. Hariri."

Mehlis appealed to the Security Council to extend his commission's mandate, which will expire Wednesday, for another six months. The United Nations has begun interviewing candidates to replace Mehlis, who plans to step down.

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