Transcript of the UN report on Hariri's murder - Part 1

REPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION COMMISSION

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS, MID 2004 – SEPTEMBER 2005

2004
• 26 August 2004, Rafik Hariri meets in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar
Assad to discuss the extension of the term of President Lahoud.
• 2 September 2004, the United Nations Security Council adopts resolution 1559
concerning the situation in the Middle East, calling for the withdrawal of all
foreign forces from Lebanon.
• 3 September 2004, the Rafik Hariri bloc approves the extension law for President
Lahoud.
• 3 September 2004, the Lebanese parliament adopts the extension law for
President Lahoud and forwards it to the Lebanese government for execution.
• 7 September 2004, Economy Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Culture Minister Ghazi
Aridi, Minister of Refugee Affairs Abdullah Farhat and Environment Minister
Fares Boueiz, resigned from the cabinet in protest at the constitutional
amendment.
• 9 September 2004, Prime Minister Rafik Hariri indicates to journalists that he will
resign.
• 1 October 2004, Assassination attempt on Marwan Hamadeh, in Beirut, Lebanon.
• 4 October 2004, Rafik Hariri resigns as prime minister.
• 11 October 2004, Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech condemning
his critics within Lebanon and the United Nations.
• 19 October 2004, United Nations Security Council expresses concern that
resolution 1559 has not been implemented.
• 20 October 2004, President Lahoud accepts Hariri's resignation and names Omar
Karame to form the new government.

2005
• 14 February 2005, Rafik Hariri and 22 other individuals are killed in a massive
blast in a seafront area of central Beirut.
• 25 February 2005, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission arrives in Lebanon.
• 8 March 2005, Hezbollah organizes a one million strong "pro-Syrian" march.
• 14 March 2005, a Christian/Sunni-led counter demonstration demands the withdrawal of Syrian troops and the arrest of the chief of the security and intelligence services.
• 19 March 2005, a bomb explodes in Jdeideh, a northern suburb of Beirut, wounding 11 people.
• 23 March 2005, three people are killed and three others wounded in an explosion in the Kaslik shopping centre, north of Beirut.
• 25 March 2005, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission issues its report in New
York.
• 26 March 2005, a suitcase bomb explodes in an industrial zone in northeast
Beirut, injuring six.
ii
• 1 April 2005, nine people are injured in an underground garage in an empty
commercial and residential building in Broumana.
• 7 April 2005, the Security Council forms the United Nations International
Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of Rafik Hariri and 22 others on 14 February 2005.
• 19 April 2005, Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati announces that parliamentary elections will be held on 30 May 2005.
• 22 April 2005, General Jamil Al-Sayyed, head of the Internal Security Forces and
General Ali Al-Hajj, head of the Sûreté Générale, decide to put their functions at
the disposal of Prime Minister Najib al Makati.
• 26 April 2005, the last Syrian troops leave Lebanon ending a 29 year military
presence.
• 26 April 2005, the United Nations Verification Mission starts its mission to verify
the complete withdrawal of Syrian military and intelligence agents from Lebanon
and its full compliance with the resolution 1559.
• 6 May 2005, a bomb explodes in Jounieh north of Beirut injuring 29 people.
• 7 May 2005, Parliament convenes to adopt the proposed changes to the electoral
law of 2000.
• 30 May 2005, the first round of the elections was held. The Rafik Hariri Martyr
List, a coalition of Saad Hariri's Future Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party
and the Qornet Shehwan Gathering, won the majority of the seats in Parliament.
• 2 June 2005, journalist Samir Kassir is killed when his car explodes in east Beirut.
• 21 June 2005, former Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi is killed
when his car explodes close to his home in Wata Musaytbeh.
• 30 June 2005, Fouad Siniora, former finance minister under Rafik Hariri, forms
the new government composed of 23 ministers.
• 12 July 2005, Defence Minister Elias Murr is wounded and two other people are killed in a car bomb attack in Beirut.
• 22 July 2005, at least three people are wounded near rue Monot when a bomb explodes in the Ashrafieh quarter.
• 22 August 2005, three persons are injured in an explosion in a garage near the Promenade Hotel in the Al-Zalqa area north of Beirut.
• 16 September 2005, one person is killed and ten others wounded by a bomb near a bank in Ashrafieh.
• 19 September 2005, one person is killed and two wounded in a small explosion at the Kuwaiti information office in Beirut.
• 25 September 2005, a car bomb injures prominent news anchor, May Chidiac, in north Beirut.

I. PREFACE

1. The present report details progress made in the implementation of Security
Council resolution 1595. In that resolution, adopted on 7 April 2005, the Security
Council, condemning the 14 February 2005 terrorist attack in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and twenty two others, reiterating its call for the strict
respect of Lebanon's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity, and noting
the conclusions reached by an earlier fact-finding mission (S/2005/203), decided to
establish an international independent investigation Commission (hereafter called UNIIIC
or the Commission) to assist the Lebanese authorities in their investigation of all aspects
of this terrorist act, in order to, among other things, help identify its perpetrators,
sponsors, organizers and accomplices.

2. Prior to the adoption of resolution 1595, the Security Council had examined the
report of the fact-finding mission to Lebanon on the same subject, submitted on 24 March
2005. The report reflected the outcome of a three-week enquiry, including a set of
recommendations. The fact-finding mission was of the opinion that, since the credibility
of the Lebanese authorities conducting the investigation was questioned, an international
indepen