VZCZCXRO7768
OO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUCNDT #1198/01 1642339
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 132339Z JUN 06
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9326
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 001198 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER KCRM PINR KISL UNSC LE SY UN
SUBJECT: UN SECRETARIAT OUTLINES STEPS TO ESTABLISH HARIRI 
TRIBUNAL 
 
REF: USUN 243 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  During a meeting with Department laywers 
and USUN Political and Legal officers on June 9, UN Office of 
Legal Affairs (OLA) lawyer Mark Quarterman and Department of 
Political Affairs (DPA) officer Alma Saliu said they believed 
they had reached agreement with Lebanese judges Choucri Sadr 
and Ralph Riachy on the remaining steps to establish a 
tribunal to try those responsible for the assassination of 
Rafiq Hariri.  Relaying Lebanese concerns that the timetable 
for establishing the tribunal not slip further, U.S. and 
French representatives strongly pressed the Secretariat to 
schedule a visit to Beirut by the end of June to finalize the 
agreement.  OLA staff indicated they planned to finalize the 
text by early July but took note of P-3 concerns on timing. 
The Lebanese and the French separately argued that the 
tribunal should have discretion to try other crimes linked to 
the Hariri assassination, but OLA said it had not yet decided 
how to address the question of jurisdiction.  The Lebanese 
judges disclosed that constitutional court review of the 
UN-GOL agreement might become a stumbling block to Lebanese 
ratification.  End Summary. 
 
Next Steps to Establish Tribunal 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Quarterman said the Lebanese judges seemed satisfied 
with OLA,s outline of the remaining steps necessary to 
establish the tribunal.  After the UN and GOL reach agreement 
in principle on the treaty and the SYG presents the text to 
the Council with an accompanying report explaining its 
contents, he observed that the UNSC could request changes to 
the text through an exchange of letters with the SYG.  Once 
the UNSC is satisfied with the agreement, Quarterman 
suggested, the SYG could sign it on behalf of the UN.  The 
GOL could then sign the agreement and forward it to the 
Lebanese Parliament for ratification.  In the case of Sierra 
Leone, after the Secretariat made the changes requested by 
UNSC members and the exchange of letters ceased, the SYG went 
forward and signed the agreement (he added this process took 
two months).  No additional UNSC authorization was needed in 
that case for the SYG to act, but Quarterman said OLA had not 
discussed this point in depth with the Lebanese. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Relaying Lebanese concerns that the current 
timetable for the draft agreement not slip beyond the current 
rough timetable, U.S. and French experts strongly pressed the 
Secretariat to quickly finish the draft treaty and statute 
 
SIPDIS 
necessary to establish the tribunal and urged OLA to honor 
its prior commitment to visit Beirut by the end of June.  The 
French experts expressed hope that they would be able to 
begin UNSC consultations on the draft text when they assume 
the Presidency of the UNSC in July.  Quarterman said OLA 
hoped to have a draft agreement ready by the end of June that 
could then be finalized in Beirut in early July, but he noted 
U.S. and French insistence on a quicker timeframe and 
promised to convey those views to U/SYG and Legal Counsel 
Nicolas Michel. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Quarterman noted that while a prosecutor,s office 
will be created as soon as the agreement enters into force, 
it will not be able to effectively carry out its work until 
the remaining elements of the court, including a pre-trial 
chamber, have been established.  The tribunal will need to 
organize its finances and hire judges before it can begin 
legal proceedings -- including whether to continue to detain 
the four Lebanese generals currently incarcerated on 
suspicion of involvement in Hariri's killing.  Speculating 
that the Lebanese want the prosecutor in place quickly to 
relieve them of responsibility over the four generals, 
Quarterman opined privately that the GOL would have to 
resolve the status of the generals before the tribunal begins 
operating -- especially given that generals have already been 
in jail for almost one year without charge. 
 
Jurisdiction 
------------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Despite their earlier preference that the tribunal 
focus on Hariri alone (reftel), the Lebanese judges told the 
U.S. delegation on June 2 that they want the scope of the 
tribunal's competence to be broad enough to hear cases of 
additional assassinations committed from October 2004 to the 
end of December 2005 if the prosecutor finds that these cases 
are "linked" to the Hariri assassination.  The judges argued 
that broader jurisdiction would not delay moving forward with 
the Hariri case.  They said they expect the draft agreement 
to provide jurisdiction to the tribunal for all terrorist 
acts in Lebanon between October 2004 and December 2005, 
leaving to the court to determine whether the cases are 
 
USUN NEW Y 00001198  002 OF 002 
 
 
linked to Hariri. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Quarterman told P-3 experts on June 9 that OLA was 
still considering different options to address the extent of 
the tribunal's jurisdiction over crimes other than the Hariri 
assassination.  Recalling UNSCR 1644's request that the SYG 
recommend to the Council whether to expand the mandate of 
UNIIIC to cover these other attacks, Quarterman argued that 
if the Commission's mandate were expanded it would be odd for 
the tribunal not to have the same jurisdiction.  At the same 
time, he noted that 13 out of 15 UNSC members had argued 
during recent Council consultations that the tribunal should 
have limited jurisdiction. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The French expert said France would support 
expanding the mandate of the Commission if Brammertz decides 
there are links between the Hariri killing and other attacks. 
 He urged OLA to release the SYG's report on whether to 
expand UNIIIC's mandate as soon as possible, but certainly 
before the SYG's report on the agreement to establish the 
tribunal.  U.S. experts noted on June 9 that the U.S. 
position would be informed by reports by Brammertz but that 
resource implications for the tribunal would also have to be 
considered. 
 
Funding 
------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Quarterman confirmed that the source of the 
tribunal's funding does not need to be resolved in the UN-GOL 
agreement, but he emphasized the importance of this question 
because the tribunal will not have access to funds from UN 
assessed contributions.  Drawing on the Sierra Leone example, 
Quarterman predicted the SYG would want the tribunal to have 
pledges sufficient for one year of operations before it is 
established.  He added that the prosecutor will likely want 
substantial investigative capabilities after the tribunal is 
established to re-interview some of the witnesses deposed by 
the UNIIIC and re-examine some of the evidence, so the first 
year of the tribunal's operations will likely be quite 
costly.  He acknowledged, however, that the Lebanese judges 
had assured him that funding would not be an issue for the 
tribunal. 
 
Amnesty and Pardon 
------------------ 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Disclosing a possible stumbling block to swift 
Parliamentary ratification, the Lebanese judges told 
Department lawyers and USUN staff on June 2 that the 
Constitution gives all Lebanese the right to petition for 
amnesty or pardon except when they are convicted of 
international crimes.  (Comment:  A subsequent review of the 
Constitution revealed no such position; the judges might have 
been referring to a provision of the Penal Code and not the 
Constitution.  End comment.)  If ten members of Parliament 
question whether the agreement satisfies the Constitutional 
protections, the judges said, they have a certain period of 
time in which to refer the issue to the Constitutional Court 
(which is not now constituted).  They added that the 
Constitutional Court could decide to strike down certain 
provisions of the agreement, such as those pertaining to 
amnesty and pardon, and allow the rest of the agreement to 
stand.  Quarterman agreed on June 9 that review by the 
constitutional court of the UN-GOL agreement could pose 
problems, but he said the Lebanese had promised to find a way 
to resolve this issue. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) We would welcome Embassy Beirut,s views on whether 
the Lebanese Government shares OLA,s outline of the 
remaining steps necessary to establish the tribunal. 
BOLTON