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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 color=black face=Garamond><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Garamond;color:black;font-weight:bold'>UN
finds evidence of official cover-up in Hariri assassination</span></font></b><font
size=4 color=black face=Garamond><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:
Garamond;color:black'><br>
</span></font><font color=black face=Garamond><span style='font-family:Garamond;
color:black'>Published: Monday, 14 March, 2005, <br>
<br>
By Robert Fisk <br>
<br>
BEIRUT: As the UN’s Irish-led special investigation team here prepares to
report that the Lebanese authorities have covered up the evidence of the
February 14 murder of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, the murdered
statesman’s two sons have fled Lebanon after hearing that they, too, may
be assassinated in the coming week. <br>
<br>
Hariri’s elder son, Bahar, has flown to Geneva and his brother, Saad, has
left hurriedly for Riyadh in Saudi Arabia after warnings that they could be the
next targets of their father’s assassins.<br>
<br>
US President George W Bush is expected to announce this week that Syrian
– and perhaps Lebanese – military intelligence officers were
involved in Hariri’s killing; the bombing took the lives of 18 other
civilians. <br>
<br>
The UN’s Irish, Egyptian and Moroccan investigation team has now been
joined by three Swiss bomb experts following the discovery that many of the
smashed vehicles in Hariri’s convoy were moved from the scene of the
massacre only hours after the bombing and before any time for an independent
investigation. <br>
<br>
Yesterday, frogmen were sent into the sea off the Beirut Corniche to recover
the wreckage of the one car in the Hariri convoy that was not taken away by the
authorities because it was blasted over a hotel wall into the Mediterranean by
the force of the explosion. If they successfully recover parts of the vehicle,
they may be able to discover the nature of the explosives. <br>
<br>
First reports that Hariri was killed by a car bomb are now being challenged by
evidence that the explosives – estimated at 600 kilos – could have
been buried beneath the seafront avenue.<br>
<br>
A unique photograph handed to The Independent in Beirut, which is now also in
the hands of the UN investigators, was taken scarcely 36 hours before the
bombing, on the afternoon of February 12. It shows a drain cover in the road at
the exact spot where the explosion was to tear a 30-foot crater in the highway,
instantly killing Hariri and many of his bodyguards, two days later. <br>
<br>
The section of roadway is marked off by ‘no parking’ signs which
have been left there innocently by staff of the nearby HSBC bank. But a
mysterious object can be seen on the left edge of the drain cover. Both the
metal cover and an extensive area of roadway around it were atomised by the
bomb.<br>
<br>
The picture also shows two buildings which the UN police officers are
investigating as possible locations of the bomber who detonated the explosives:
one is on top of the circular building in the centre of the photo – which
houses a Beirut hotel as well as a Lebanese army retirement fund office –
and the other is on top of the civil war-damaged Holiday Inn, which has been
empty for more than a decade. A balloon to the right of the photograph
regularly takes tourists aloft over Beirut.<br>
<br>
Some members of the Hariri family have been told that the report of the UN
enquiry team will be so devastating that it will force a full international
investigation of the murder of ‘Mr Lebanon’ and his entourage. <br>
<br>
Hariri opposed the continued Syrian military presence in Lebanon and many Lebanese have blamed the Syrians for his murder. The UN investigators have
become convinced that there was a cover-up of evidence.<br>
<br>
President Bush’s expected remarks on Wednesday will follow two
extraordinary days of public demonstrations in Beirut. In the first, today,
opposition politicians will try to gather a million followers to protest
against the failure of the government to resign and to reveal the truth about
Hariri’s murder – as well as to dwarf last Tuesday’s
half-million strong Hezbollah rally in support of Syria. <br>
<br>
The second, by pro-Syrian demonstrators, is planned to march to the US embassy in the Aukar suburb of east Beirut.<br>
<br>
All this is being organised while virulent rumours sweep Beirut. One says that
the Syrians have been handing out weapons to pro-Syrian Palestinians in the
refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut and Ein el-Helwe in Sidon. Investigations by The Independent strongly suggest that this is untrue; the
Palestinians have quite enough weapons without being re-supplied, and many of
them would like to be disarmed to end lethal inter-Palestinian factional
fighting. <br>
<br>
But on Saturday night in the Sabra camp, someone knifed to death an elderly
Syrian fruit-seller in what was an obvious attempt to provoke violence. –
The Independent</span></font></p>
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