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By such little things is a man betrayed
On 14 February, the anniversary of his assassination, I remember
Hariri and the promises we made
By: Robert Fisk
02/11/06 "The
Independent" -- -- A year ago, I watched an old
friend burning on the pavement beside me. No, let us be true,
many millions of Lebanese regarded Rafiq Hariri as an old
friend. But he was a friend to me, calling me after I was badly
beaten on the Afghan border in 2001, offering to fly me home to
Beirut on his private jet - "Musharraf is my friend," he had
shouted, accurately if somewhat slyly - over the phone line to
Quetta.
And, of course, I turned him down; journalists should not take
gifts from prime ministers. And so again, this 14 February, on
the anniversary of his assassination - along with 21 others on
the Corniche not far from my Beirut home - I remember the man
and all the solemn promises we made to tell the truth about his
murder.
First came a deputy Garda commissioner from Dublin. Then came a
pompous prosecutor from Germany. Then there arrived last month a
humble lawyer from Belgium. All tasked by the United Nations, no
less, to find out the truth. Were the Syrians involved? This was
the question.
Four top Lebanese security officers, all "close" (as they say)
to Syria, were arrested. The Syrian minister of interior, former
army secret police boss Ghazi Kenaan, shot himself in his own
office in Damascus. Oh deus ex machina. I knew Ghazi too, an old
sparring partner of the 1980s who used to make tasteless jokes
about the kidnapping of Terry Waite. Topped, my lords and
ladies.
"He knew what it was like to be executed," one of his less
pleasant friends was to say later. No doubt.
I didn't even know it was Sheikh Rafiq until I saw the pictures
in the paper the next day. I thought the corpse on the Corniche
was that of a zaatar seller, one of the big men who sold the
rock-hard bread on the seafront, and I should have noticed, of
course, the little curl of hair over the collar, the sign that
this cremating man was the former prime minister of Lebanon who
had called me to help me back in 2001.
Only when I saw the caption - "the martyr Rafiq Hariri" -- did I
realise. I had watched him burn, like a spectator at a match. I
had been 400 metres from his immolation. Everyone in front of me
had been killed or wounded. Saved again.
And so the Lebanese watched the mighty course of justice roll
inexorably forward. The UN would find out the truth. One of the
Garda officers told me of his deep concern for the Lebanese.
"They come up to us - they actually come up to us - and tell us
to find out the truth," he said. Of course they did.
The unsolved murders of Lebanon - of Kemal Jumblatt, of Renee
Mouawad, of the Grand Mufti, Hassan Khaled, and of Rashid Karami
and the rest (let us not speak of Elie Hobeika, who led the
Phalange militia into Sabra and Chatila in 1982) - hang like a
black curtain over Lebanese history.
Four men were imprisoned - including the general who used to tap
my telephone in Lebanon. I even posted the number in The
Independent - Beirut 370615 - in case he had got it wrong. Phew.
Down at my favourite restaurants, I could now wax forth with
friends without looking over my shoulder.
Or could I?
For the other morning, a little bird flew through my bedroom
window. My mum, Peggy, always talked about her 'little bird',
the tiny sparrow which arrived with bits and pieces of
information which she didn't want to hear. And as a
correspondent, it is, I suppose, my doleful duty to tell readers
what I don't want to hear. So this is what my little bird is
telling me.
The Americans, deep in distress in their occupation of Iraq,
have hatched a deal with the Syrians. In response to a request
that the Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada Sadr keep his distance from
the Iraqi Sunni insurgents and play by the ball in the
elections, Syria has promised to use its "influence".
In response to an American appeal, Syria has arrested up to
8,000 Iraqi insurgents inside its borders. In response to a plea
by Washington, it is cutting back on the assistance that the
Iraqi rebels receive from inside Syria.
Aware that the highest levels of the Syrian security apparatus
may be impeached by the UN enquiry into Hariri's death, the
Syrians are being "responsible". The new and far more humble
Belgian investigator gives no press conferences - had you
noticed this? - and makes no statements. Silence, gentlemen,
please.
Sure, Condi Rice goes on telling us that the truth will out.
Wasn't Hariri behind UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which
told the Syrians to get out of Lebanon? Wasn't that why he was
murdered? I don't think he was behind 1559, though that might
have been enough for the Syrian Baathist secret police to
assassinate him.
But all the big talk about justice and freedom and the "Cedar
Revolution" - an invention of the US State Department which The
New York Times obediently adopted - appears to be drifting away.
George W Bush, who shook hands with Rafiq's son Saad in the
White House only this week, is sliding away from the truth.
Getting American boys out of Iraq is more important, I suspect,
than finding out who killed Rafiq Hariri.
I still feel deeply sorry for the man I saw burning in front of
me a year ago. And I think he is going to be betrayed.
© 2006 Independent News and Media Limited
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