Al-Akhbar will not appear before the tribunal

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Al-Akhbar will not appear before the tribunal

The building housing the Special Tribunal for Lebanon at the Hague. (Photo: AFP)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Let’s return to the beginning:

A political assassination took place in Lebanon. Arab and international parties, in cooperation with their agents in Lebanon, decided to issue international resolutions that stipulated establishing a Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Since it snuck in during the darkness of the night, in violation of the Lebanese constitution and even international law, the criminals themselves obtained a resolution from the United Nations Security Council, under Chapter 7, to establish a mandate authority to impose its power on all Lebanese institutions and authorities.

Since that day, a grotesque process of insulting an entire people began and the dignity, freedom and rights of Lebanese citizens have been infringed upon. Freedom, which the Lebanese have protected and continue to protect with their blood, came under attack.

This is enough of a reason to reject this tribunal and to accuse its judges and employees of being irrelevant, of violating the laws of human rights and of participating in an institution that is transgressing against the citizens of a free, sovereign and independent country. Even more dangerously, they are participating in an attack against what is sacred in Lebanon, most prominently and by far most importantly, its heroic Resistance and heroic fighters.

Perhaps the time has come to say very clearly: neither we nor most Lebanese are ready to pay with our freedom, destinies and everything that is sacred to know who assassinated Rafik Hariri. Especially as the other side, which sold Lebanon under the pretext of wanting to know who killed Lebanon’s prime minister, nominated a convicted killer of another Lebanese prime minister to the presidency. Do these people really think that we are going to let them spread their venom in the country and push it toward havoc time and again? They will never get their wish, neither from us, nor from the rest of us if they were to get to us.

Many legal experts, some of them who work for the tribunal itself, can provide endless tales about daily violations of the human rights charter. Therefore, it is natural for us to always declare our skepticism of everything that the STL does and everything that comes from it. Unless all these flaws are corrected and pledges are made to undertake complete and comprehensive procedures that protect people’s rights, this tribunal will never be welcomed by us.

■ ■ ■

For those who know us and like us, for those who know us and do not like us, for those who know us and have tried us, for those who know us and have not tried us enough and to all those who want to try us today and tomorrow we say:

There is no one on God’s green earth, no one, who could force us to violate our promise to our free selves, that our dignity will not be touched, and our right to a free and dignified life will not be compromised. We are keenly aware that one of the reasons we are being targeted is because we stand at the heart of the battle of the Resistance which represents the holy of our holies.

Al-Akhbar will not appear before the STL!

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.