Beirut has not yet paid STL dues for 2011 ?We look forward to receiving the money, which the state is obliged to pay under Chapter 7?

By Michael Bluhm BEIRUT: Lebanon has not yet paid its roughly $32-million share of the 2011 budget of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), while the potential ascension to power of a March 8-led government could throw the country?s funding for the court into question. ?The STL has not received a contribution from the government of Lebanon in 2011,? tribunal spokesman Crispin Thorold told The Daily Star Wednesday. Because of the numerous layers of bureaucracy in moving the court?s budget through various U.N. bodies, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent the request for this year?s funding last month, Thorold added. The tribunal?s management committee approved this year?s $65.7-million budget in mid-November last year. The Finance Ministry did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the matter. Lebanon has agreed to pay 49 percent of the tribunal?s costs for the first three years of its operations, but differences over support for the STL largely led to the toppling of caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri?s government in January. Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati was nominated by politicians siding with the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance, and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said the court is part of a U.S. and Israeli conspiracy to weaken the group, and he called on all Lebanese to boycott any cooperation with the tribunal. The STL, meanwhile, has taken the position that Lebanon must continue cooperating with the tribunal because the court was founded by the U.N. Security Council with the authority of Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter; this provision mandates that all U.N. member states must provide ?assistance? in carrying out the decisions of the Security Council. Concerning Lebanon?s 2011 share of the STL budget, tribunal spokesman Thorold said: ?We look forward to receiving the money, which the Lebanese state is obliged to pay under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter.? Should Lebanon fail to comply with the court?s requests for cooperation, the Security Council would have the authority to slap sanctions on Lebanon. A spokesman for MP Michel Aoun?s Free Patriotic Movement outlined the March 8 bloc?s opposition to the tribunal, saying he doubted the court?s neutrality and credibility, although he stopped short of stating that the party would not allow Lebanon to continue financing the U.N.-backed court. ?The tribunal has to prove some more objectivity,? said Wassim Hnoud, head of the party?s department of internal communication. ?We don?t see much neutrality coming from the tribunal. It has lost a lot of credibility.? Hnoud said the court?s legitimacy was undercut because its cooperation agreement with Lebanon was signed when the rival March 14 camp alone controlled Lebanon?s government. ?It was not founded in a consensual way,? he said. In addition, the FPM representative said the court?s work had paralyzed Lebanon; the squabbling political camps were never able to resolve their differences over the issue of how to pursue the so-called false witnesses ? those who gave testimony to U.N. or Lebanese investigators that was later judged to be unsubstantiated. Hnoud also said the STL had lost credibility by holding for years and then freeing without charges four generals who headed Lebanon?s security services when former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in February 2005. Hnoud added that the tribunal was, in the end, unnecessary and hypocritical, after the international community was not roused to take any similar action during or after Lebanon?s 1975-90 Civil War. The creation of the STL ?was absolutely not warranted under any circumstances,? he added. ?This also adds to us doubting the credibility of the tribunal.? Retired Gen. Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at various universities, said that any government formed by Mikati would have to cut off Lebanon?s cooperation with the tribunal, including the funding, because of Hezbollah?s leading role in changing the country?s cabinets. ?Would Hezbollah accept being in the government and financing [the tribunal]?? Hanna asked. ?It?s not doable. How can [Mikati] finance it ? in order to indict Hezbollah? It?s not logical.? Should Lebanon not provide its share of the tribunal?s budget, the international community could without much strain gather an extra $32 million for the STL, Hanna said. Court spokesman Thorold said donors had been giving ?very positive? reactions to requests for funding.

Source: http://www.tayyar.org/Tayyar/News/PoliticalNews/en-US/daily-star-pb-9660180.htm

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