[LCM Articles] Fisk: "UN Finds Evidence of Official Cover-Up in Hariri Assassination"

[Loai Naamani]

UN finds evidence of official cover-up in Hariri assassination
Published: Monday, 14 March, 2005, 

By Robert Fisk 

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

The second, by pro-Syrian demonstrators, is planned to march to the US embassy in the Aukar suburb of east Beirut.

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. 

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

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