An international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was officially opened Sunday at a ceremony in a village outside The Hague. “We are not here for the United Nations, nor for the international community, but for Lebanon,” Vincent said. “We are not here for the perpetrators of crimes but for the victims of crime.” Court prosecutor Daniel Bellemare of Canada said Sunday he expects to ask within weeks for Lebanon to transfer to the court four Lebanese generals who are suspects in the assassination. The request, “will be made as soon as possible,” Bellemare told Al-Arabiya. The generals led Lebanon's police, intelligence service and an elite army unit at the time of the assassination. They are the only people in custody, though they have not been formally charged. The new court has a wing ready to detain suspects in a Hague jail that already holds Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and former Liberian President Charles Taylor, among other international war crimes suspects. The court was set up by the UN Security Council in 2007 and will have four Lebanese and seven international judges following Lebanese law. The court does not have the death penalty. The names of Lebanese judges have been withheld out of fears for their safety.
