Dutch to host special tribunal on Lebanon killings

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 17 (Reuters) The Netherlands has agreed to host a special court to prosecute the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri and other political figures, the United Nations said today.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was pleased to receive a letter from Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende ''informing him that the government of the Netherlands is favorably disposed to hosting the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.'' Montas said Ban would send a delegation to the Netherlands in the next few weeks to discuss practical arrangements for the tribunal, whose establishment has been authorized by the UN Security Council.

The prime minister's letter arrived on Wednesday, she said.

Hariri and 22 others died in February 2005 in a Beirut car bomb blast that interim UN findings have linked to Syrian and Lebanese security officials. Syria has denied involvement but the outcry forced it to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

The United Nations and the Lebanese government agreed last year that a special tribunal based outside Lebanon would try those suspected of killing Hariri and others implicated in a spate of political assassinations.

Netherlands Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen told Dutch radio station Evangelische Omroep yesterday that the agreement still needed to work out who would bear the costs for the tribunal.

The United Nations announced in July it had asked the Netherlands to host the tribunal, a step it rarely takes unless agreement had been assured.

NO SUSPECTS NAMED At the request of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the UN Security Council voted to set up the special tribunal on June 10, despite opposition from anti-government parliamentarians in the divided country.

UN officials have said they expect it to take up to a year to get the court functioning after a U.N.-established commission completes its investigation.

UN investigators probing the killing have identified a number of people who may have been involved or known about it, their chief reported this month.

Prosecutor Serge Brammertz of Belgium did not name any suspects in a report to the Security Council last month, which also expressed concern that deteriorating security in Lebanon could hamper the inquiry. His predecessor, Detlev Mehlis of Germany, had suggested Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services were involved.

Brammertz also is investigating 17 other political murders or attempted murders in Lebanon.

Ban, in his request to the Netherlands in July, said the country's experience in hosting other courts was invaluable for the Lebanon tribunal.

The Hague is the seat of a UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court.

The Netherlands also hosted the trial of two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of a jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland.

At the moment, a special court sitting in The Hague is trying Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president and warlord, for spurring brutal rebels during neighboring Sierra Leone's civil war.

Reuters SZ VP0355