UN envoy to push for Hariri tribunal

United Nations: The UN is seeking to break a deadlock over a tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - which triggered the country's worst political crisis in decades.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday he was sending chief UN legal counsel Nicholas Michel to Beirut to initiate a dialogue and answer legal concerns over the international court. Michel said he would arrive on Tuesday and stay as long as needed.

Ban and the UN Security Council had hoped Lebanon would agree on a law establishing the court after the country asked the council to approve the tribunal and investigate the slaying of Hariri and 22 others in his motorcade killed by a bomb in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Assistance

But Nabih Berri, the opposition speaker of the Lebanese parliament, has refused to call a session of the chamber to ratify the tribunal. Together with the rest of the opposition, Berri disputes the legitimacy of the government.

In the past week, the pro-Western cabinet, led by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and 70 out of 128 legislators have asked the Security Council establish the special court.

The purpose of Michel's visit is "to offer his legal assistance to the Lebanese government and political leaders, to help their constitutional procedures," Ban told reporters after a lunch with Security Council ambassadors.

Michel said he did not want to step into Lebanon's internal controversy. "I am going to go there, offer my good offices on behalf of the secretary-general and let the parties understand that they had expressed the wish to establish a tribunal and we are there to achieve that seriously with them in good time," Michel said.

At least two Security Council members said the 15-nation body could not set up a court without invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes the decision mandatory.

Hezbollah, Lebanon's largest opposition group, has expressed concern the tribunal, with US support, will be used as a political weapon against it.

Hussain Al Khalil, advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, warned against setting up the court under Chapter 7.

"The one who resorts to this chapter ... puts Lebanon on the path of ruin and civil war," he told Hezbollah's Al Manar television.

UAE project: Team clears 10 villages of unexploded bombs

The UAE project for support and reconstruction of Lebanon announced that ten villages in southern Lebanon had been cleared from unexploded ordnance.

Demined lands and farms were handed to their owners in the presence of mayors and representatives of local authorities, Lebanese army and UN mine action coordination centre in southern Lebanon.

Villagers have paid tributes to the leadership and people of the UAE for their efforts to clear their properties from mines and cluster bombs which posed a real threat to lives. Chairman of Nabatia municipality Dr Mustafa Badr Al Deen thanked UAE President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his initiative towards the people of Lebanon.

Commander of the UAE demining field team Major Salah Aman said that the area of fields delivered to their owners reached 574,093 square metres since the start of operations. "Some 3.9 million square metres were cleared from 3,527 mines and cluster bombs from last year up to March 2007," he added.

- WAM