Rafik Hariri (archives)
Photo: Reuters
Crowd scuffles with UN investigators in Beirut
Women force their way into Beirut gynecology clinic, curse team of officials gathering evidence on Hariri assassination. ' It looked like a real battle,' clinic manager says
A crowd of women chased away a team of UN officials gathering evidence Wednesday in the death of a former Lebanese prime minister, scuffling with the investigators and shouting abuse before snatching a briefcase, police said.
Nobody was hurt in the melee at a private gynecology clinic, which underscored the charged emotions behind the international tribunal looking into Rafik Hariri's 2005 assassination. The Hague-based court said the incident was being taken seriously.
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The tribunal has not yet indicted any suspects in the assassination, but speculation that the court could name members of the Hezbollah militant group has raised fears of violence between the heavily armed Shiite guerrilla force and Hariri's mainly Sunni allies.
Wednesday's incident happened at a clinic on the first floor of a residential building in Beirut's southern suburb of Ouzai, a Hezbollah stronghold. It was unclear what role the clinic may play in the investigation.
Dr. Iman Sharara, who runs the clinic, said two men - an Australian and a French national - showed up with a Lebanese interpreter for an appointment to go through some phone records. She said the men requested the phone numbers of up to 17 patients who had visited her clinic since 2003.
When she went outside to speak to her secretary, she saw a large group of women force their way into the clinic, screaming and trampling on documents belonging to the clinic.
"It looked like a real battle," she told reporters. "The investigators fled. The interpreter, they pulled her hair, they snatched things from them ... I returned to my clinic, hid inside and called my husband."
Beirut clinic where incident took place (Photo: AFP)
A police official said more than 30 women stormed the building, with another 75 or so remaining outside. He added, on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give public statements, that the crowd shouted curses at the tribunal and one protester stole an investigator's briefcase. It was not known what was inside.
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station called the investigators intrusion on a private clinic "scandalous." It quoted witnesses as saying female patients at the clinic became angry when they saw two foreign investigators walk in.
The clinic is in a conservative Shiite Muslim area and the presence of foreign men may have provoked sensitivities.
The court did not provide details but told The Associated Press in an e-mail that it takes the incident "very seriously and we are currently looking into it."
The massive truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 other people along Beirut's Mediterranean waterfront on Feb. 14, 2005 was one of the most dramatic political assassinations the Mideast has seen. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.
Suspicion fell on neighboring Syria, since Hariri had been seeking to weaken its domination of the country. Syria has denied having any role in the murder, but the killing galvanized opposition to Damascus and led to huge street demonstrations helped end Syria's 29-year military presence.
Since then, speculation has grown that Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria, will be indicted. Though the tribunal has not yet named any individuals or countries as suspects, Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has announced that he expects members of his group to be indicted. He vows not to hand them over to be prosecuted.
Many fear that indictments of Hezbollah members could trigger violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. In 2008, sectarian clashes killed 81 people and nearly plunged Lebanon into another civil war.
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