Lebanon approves tribunal in Hariri slaying

Pushing ahead despite threats of street violence and unrest, a depleted and defiant Lebanese Cabinet on Monday unanimously approved a U.N. plan for an international court to try the killers of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The vote was another small step toward clearing up a mystery that has shadowed and destabilized this country for more than a year, but it was also the latest stroke of political brinkmanship between two bitterly divided political factions.

A swelling standoff between the two groups pushed the members of the powerful Hezbollah movement and its allies to quit the government over the weekend and is widely expected to spill into the streets in coming days. An apprehensive mood gripped Lebanon on Monday, as people braced for demonstrations and civil unrest.

“Things have gotten out of control, and there’s nothing to pull everybody back to the negotiating table,” said Karim Makdisi, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut. “Both sides are putting on an extreme position, and there’s nothing to pull them back to the center.”

Anger had flared over the government’s determination to press forward with the vote on the court. President Emile Lahoud lodged a stiff protest. A sixth Cabinet minister quit before the vote. In the end, the 18 ministers who approved the tribunal did not include a single member of the Shiite Muslim sect, which is believed to be the largest group in Lebanon.

Hezbollah and its Christian allies harshly condemned the vote as an unconstitutional power play. The government does not represent most of the Lebanese people, they said, and any decision made without the Shiites is invalid.

“The government has lost its legitimacy,” Gen. Michele Aoun, head of a powerful Christian party and a political ally of Hezbollah, told reporters. “Its decision today on the draft of the international court is meaningless and void.”

Saad Hariri, a virulently anti-Syria lawmaker who is head of the Sunni Muslim community and political heir to the slain former leader, has been outspoken about the need for justice in his father’s unsolved assassination. He and his allies have been pushing for the international court, which is widely expected to implicate members of the Syrian regime in the killing.

Even after the Shiites quit the Cabinet in protest, Hariri and his allies vowed to push forward, saying they wouldn’t be cowed by what they saw as attempts to delay justice.

“Our only aim is to achieve justice, and only justice,” Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said after the vote. “Without it and without knowing the truth, the Lebanese will not rest and we cannot protect our democratic system and political freedom.

“We tell the criminals that we will not give up our rights, no matter what the difficulties and obstacles are,” he said.

Details of the proposed tribunal have not been released. The panel is expected to meet outside Lebanon and to include both Lebanese and foreign judges.

Hezbollah, a longtime ally of Syria and Iran, has viewed the court with a wary eye. Members of the Shiite group have accused foreigners -- a reference to the U.S. and Europe -- of plotting to use the court to meddle in Lebanon’s domestic affairs.

“They have an agenda that is being dictated from the outside,” said Ibrahim Moussawi, a news director at Hezbollah’s Al Manar television station. “They are deepening the crisis, moving it from bad to worse.”

A massive truck bomb targeted the elder Hariri’s convoy as it made its way through Beirut in February 2005. The attack sent shock waves through this small Mediterranean country, and thousands of people took to the streets to accuse Syria of plotting Hariri’s death.

In April 2005, Syria completed the pullout of its 14,000 troops, ending 29 years of military involvement in Lebanon.

Damascus has denied any role in Hariri’s death, but investigators have implicated Syria and its proxies in the attack.

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megan.stack@latimes.com