Beirut - Dozens of followers of Lebanon's late former
premier Rafik Hariri gathered Sunday to lay white flowers at his
grave, as an international tribunal is launched in The Hague to try
suspects in his murder.
'Justice for all Lebanon,' read a placard posted near the grave of
Hariri and six of his bodyguards who fell in a massive blast on
February 14, 2005 in a seaside area of Beirut.
Verses of the holy Koran echoed from the nearby Al-Amin Mosque,
which was built by Hariri before his assassination.
'We are here to pay tribute to the late Hariri and his bodyguards
and all those who were killed during the blast and after,' said Akram
Baltagi, a follower of Hariri's Future Current Movement.
Several ministers among them, Member of Parliament (MP) Marwan
Hamadah, who himself was a target of a blast that ripped through his
convoy in October 2004.
'The tribunal is not only for us who belong to the Hariri camp,
but for all of Lebanon,' Hamadah told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Another victim present at the grave of Hariri, was television
anchor May Chidiac, who was also the target of a bomb attack in
September 2005, in which she lost a leg and an arm.
Chidiac stood in tears near Hariri's grave and said 'I cannot but
say this is a historical day for Lebanon.'
'I tell the murderers you will be punished after all,' she added.
Since Hariri's assassination, Lebanon has been rocked by several
blasts during in which eight anti-Syrian Lebanese officials belonging
to the Hariri camp have been killed.
The mother of one of murdered Hariri's bodyguards, Mohammed
Darwish, also carried white flowers to his grave.
'I came today to tell my son that justice will be made to punish
the people who killed him and others along with the great martyr
premier Rafik Hariri,' said Sahar Darwish.
'All I want is justice for all who died in Lebanon, including my
son,' she said.
A large television screen showing the launching of the tribunal
was placed near the grave, as followers of Hariri stood in silence
watching.
'My heart is beating with joy,' said Maria Hibri as she stood
watching the launch of the Netherlands-based tribunal.
Sunday's ceremony at The Hague was attended by some 50 foreign
diplomats and 130 Lebanese and foreign journalists.
A few metres away from the site of the February 2005 explosion, a
crowd, including friends of the then economic minister Bassel Fleihan
who also was killed in the blast, gathered to pay their respects.
'We came here to pay tribute for all who fell with Hariri and our
friend Bassel Fleihan. We came to say justice will be made after
all,' said Akram Zuheiri, a close friend of Fleihan's.
Hariri's wife, Nazik, in a statement from her home in Paris,
stressed that the tribunal was not 'for revenge but it is to bring
justice and end the political assassinations in Lebanon.'
The court, constituted under a United Nations mandate, is to probe
among other things allegations that Syria and its Lebanese allies
were behind Hariri's killing. Syria strongly denies the allegations.
Hariri's son, Saad, who currently heads the anti-Syrian ruling
majority at the Lebanese parliament: 'For the first time we see that
justice will take its course.'
General Prosecutor Judge Daniel Bellemare at the special tribunal
for Lebanon, told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya TV on Saturday that
'those who doubted the establishment of the Special Tribunal should
know that it has become a reality.'
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