Nasrallah: 'Violations' against Lebanese in UN probe unacceptable

Thu, 28 Oct 2010

Beirut - Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said late Thursday that his movement would not stand idly by while "violations" were carried out against Lebanese citizens by United Nations investigators probing the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

"We refrained in the past from commenting on the work of the UN investigators, so that no one would say that we are obstructing the probe," he said in a speech aired on the Hezbollah-run al-Manar television station. "But now, no. We have reached a point that we can no longer be silent."

His speech came a day after two investigators affiliated with the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), were assaulted by women in Beirut's southern suburbs - a Hezbollah stronghold.

Tensions have run high in Lebanon since reports surfaced that the UN-backed tribunal is poised to indict members of the radical Shiite movement for Hariri's 2005 murder.

Hezbollah has rejected the charges and dismissed the tribunal as an "Israeli project."

The two court investigators and their translator were entering a private gynaecology clinic Wednesday when some 150 women blocked them from proceeding any further.

One of the women reportedly snatched a briefcase containing documents from the hands of one of the investigators.

Iman Sharara, who runs the clinic and is believed to be close to Hezbollah, said the investigators, who had scheduled an appointment with her, requested contacts for 17 patients.

"I think we have reached a very sensitive point that is linked to our honor and that requires a certain response," Nasrallah said.

"I want to ask Lebanese officials and citizens a question: Who of you would agree to allow someone to look at the medical records of your women?" Nasrallah questioned.

According to local media reports Hezbollah was aware that STL investigators had scheduled an appointment with Charara four days prior to Wednesday's incident.

Nasrallah revealed that "minutes ago" he was informed that the United States was pressuring STL prosecutor general, Daniel Bellemare, to speed up the process of announcing the court's indictment.

He added that the indictment would be the same as a 2009 report published in the German magazine Der Spiegel which stated that Hezbollah members would be indicted in the Rafik Hariri murder.

The Hezbollah chief concluded his short speech by calling on the Lebanese people to deal with the demands of the investigators according to their conscience.

Nasrallah's speech came just hours after UN special envoy for Lebanon, Terje Roed Larsen, said that Lebanon was a "hyper-dangerous" state because of the heavily armed militias operating there.

Larsen called for urgent efforts to disarm groups such as the Iranian-Syrian backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, warning that there was "a hurricane blowing up" in the Middle East.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/350895,lebanese-un-probe-unacceptable.html.