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Report: Lebanon on Verge of Chaos, STL to Cause Further Unrest

Report: Lebanon on Verge of Chaos, STL to Cause Further Unrest
folder_openLebanon access_time10 years ago
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Local Editor

The German Der Spiegel daily warned that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon could cause further unrest in Lebanon that is already on the verge of chaos.

Report: Lebanon on Verge of Chaos, STL to Cause Further UnrestIt further said: "The investigation was plagued by shocking errors and surprising twists. And rarely has a criminal case had such geopolitical significance... The outcome is uncertain."

In the intervening years, the tribunal, which is funded by 28 countries, Germany included, has spent more than a quarter-billion dollars in its quest for truth.

Scandals have accompanied the investigation from the very beginning. High-ranking UN deputies have stepped down, for "private reasons."

Others have been duped by dubious witnesses. In Lebanon, there are many who believe the tribunal has a Western bias; in the West, on the other hand, people worry that the UN body has withheld facts that could be uncomfortable for the Arab world.
"At the same time, however, al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunnis have begun challenging violent groups from other confessions in an apparent attempt to have Lebanon join Iraq as a battlefield in the ongoing religious proxy war.

The report also mentioned: "It looks as though it could end up being something of a trial of ghosts -- the international community vs. phantoms. The court, led by a president from New Zealand, will see a Canadian-led team of prosecutors arguing against a French-led team of defense attorneys. But none of the Lebanese defendants will be in the dock. The trial and the verdict will all take place in abstentia."

"Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, from Berlin, had four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals arrested and they remained in investigative custody for three full years before being released because witness accounts proved unreliable."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team