The Special Tribunal For Lebanon Sets Judicial Standards
25 January 2014
By Diana Moukalled
In Lebanon, murder has been adopted as a means to
govern and wield power in public life. The country has
the highest percentage of political assassinations in
the world, taking into consideration its size and
short history.
Ever since Lebanon's creation, an enforced harmony was
established, with murderers who spread their culture
of death taking the lead. These killers eliminated
their victims in any way they could, either using
explosions, assassinations or permanent abduction. A
formula granting murderers a post in public and
political life was fixed. Meanwhile, all the victim
had to do was die and fade away silently. If some
survived for some reason, all they had to do was
accept the fact and thank God they were alive.
All this was adopted under a formula that asserted
that murdering rivals was the peak of patriotism.
However, the core of this formula was shaken a few
days ago by the spectacular realism the Lebanese and
the rest of the world demonstrated through the
workings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL),
which began its trials for the murder of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri.
The prosecution presented a live audio and visual
representation of the events that led up to the crime
that took place on February 14, 2005, and presented
evidence that five Hezbollah members were involved in
monitoring Hariri and preparing the explosion that
killed him. We watched the movements of the accused
for months before the crime and saw authenticated data
of their communications.
The show that the STL prosecutors put on resembled the
work of investigative journalists. But isn't
investigation a practice of both journalists and
judiciaries?
And just like journalism can deviate from its role,
the judiciary can too, tampering with its major task
of achieving justice. This is what happened in all
previous assassination cases that hit Lebanon—the
judiciary was incapable of fulfilling its role and its
hands were tied.
But this STL is the first time a serious and efficient
judicial route has been taken for a crime described as
terrorism. The Lebanese and the Arabs have not
experienced trials that are this efficient until now.
To be more accurate, the public's interest has never
been held by any trial before because the idea of
justice, in its procedural and judicial meaning, and
not in its spiritual meaning, has not been that common
in our states.
The STL now breaks with all this. Calmly yet
forcefully, based on the data, someone has narrated
our story in this country for us—or, rather,
documented our story as part of the wider region. When
I looked into the history of the tribunal, I realized
why it had been the target of massive political and
media campaigns over the course of the last nine
years. Of course, these campaigns have now resumed,
with some returning to the rhetoric of "resistance"
that keeps repeating that the tribunal is politicized
and hasn't presented anything new. Accusations that
the trial was boring also recently emerged.
The course of justice may be long, and even boring,
but this is the nature of justice. Unlike murder and
violence, speed and excitement are not features of
justice.
The Lebanese people's story concerning this tribunal
has not ended yet. It will certainly see more chapters
unfold. Everything that has happened in Lebanon during
the past nine years is directly or indirectly linked
to the STL. The tribunal may not bring security
quickly to Lebanon, but it's certainly a real
introduction to the concept of accountability.
Diana Moukalled is a prominent and well-respected
TV journalist in the Arab world thanks to her
phenomenal show Bil Ayn Al-Mojarada (By The Naked
Eye), a series of documentaries on controversial areas
and topics which airs on Lebanon's leading local and
satelite channel, Future Television. Diana also is a
veteran war correspondent, having covered both the
wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan, as well as the
Isreali "Grapes of Wrath" massacre in southern
Lebanon. Ms. Moukalled has gained world wide
recognition and was named one of the most influential
women in a special feature that ran in Time Magazine
in 2004.
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