02 July 2011
BEIRUT: The leader of the Progressive Socialist Party said Friday that preserving Lebanon’s stability and achieving justice in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri were “inevitably” linked, and called on leaders to resume dialogue.
“As much as justice is important, because it is the only recourse for all [families of] martyrs and victims, stability and civil peace are the most important slogans for any future,” Walid Jumblatt told a news conference at his house in Beirut.
The PSP leader cited a famous statement by the late Hariri. “Today we repeat what the martyred prime minister said: ‘No one is bigger than his country.’ This rule strongly applies to our current situation.”
“If Prime Minister Hariri were alive today … he would make a decision in line with this vision and spare the country strife,” Jumblatt said, adding that the late Hariri was committed to “coexistence, civil peace and national unity.”
The STL, which was established by the U.N. to investigate Hariri’s assassination, handed over the Lebanese portion of the indictment Thursday.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the indictment identified four suspects who are members of Hezbollah: Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Oneisseh and Asad Sabra. Many fear that the indictment could spark strife in the country.
Following the indictment’s release, Jumblatt said that Lebanon has |entered “a new period which requires responsibility, awareness, rationality and calm.”
Jumblatt reiterated that dialogue was the only means to solve all disputed issues.
“In my opinion there is no strife. I say that dialogue is necessary and fundamental and the policy statement calls for dialogue,” he said.
“It is the only means to prevent the country from sliding into fighting, strife or tension, given the changes and great transformations which Lebanon and the Arab region have witnessed.”
Jumblatt said that the indictment was released at a “suspicious” time, as the Cabinet was in the middle of discussing its policy statement, which had not yet gone before Parliament for a vote of confidence.
But Jumblatt said that “the Cabinet policy statement and the remarks of Prime Minister [Najib Mikati] were clear in terms of the commitment to cooperating with the international tribunal, [a position] which is completely contrary to what was put forth by the opposition throughout the previous period [which is] that the Cabinet wanted to put Lebanon in confrontation with the international community.”
Jumblatt warned that the accusations made against individuals should not be aimed at “a side, party or a sect,” saying this would “threaten the basis of Islamic unity in Lebanon and the region,” and jeopardize civil peace and national unity in the country.
“It is certain that achieving justice regarding Rafik Hariri and his martyred companions does not happen by dragging the country toward tension and division or falling in the trap of the game of nations, which we were the first to warn of,” Jumblatt added.
He called on all the Lebanese factions “in this sensitive political moment” to rise above petty things, approach matters carefully and with a national responsibility and move away from all that leads to tensions.
“Let’s let things move forward calmly, and allow the Cabinet, the judiciary, political factions and security bodies to handle their duties in order to avoid” entanglement in controversial actions, he added.
When asked whether the indictment was politicized, he said, “I cannot answer.”
PSP media official Rami Rayyes told The Daily Star that Jumblatt’s remarks laid down the broad outlines for the upcoming period.
“Fulfilling these broad outlines is the responsibility of the PSP and all other Lebanese factions” he said.
Asked whether Jumblatt’s call to allow the judiciary to handle its duties indicated implicit support for arresting the wanted individuals, Rayyes said that they would leave the decisions to the judiciary.
“The judiciary knows better than us what to do. It is not we who we dictate what it should do.”
Copyright The Daily Star 2011.
