Lebanon mourns Tueni as investigation sought

Schools, shops and businesses closed down in Lebanon today to mourn anti-Syrian journalist and legislator Gebran Tueni.

Schools, shops and businesses closed down in Lebanon today to mourn anti-Syrian journalist and legislator Gebran Tueni.

Mr Tueni was killed yesterday by a large car bomb explosion in a Christian suburb of Beirut along with three other people in the third political assassination since former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed in February.

Five Shia Muslim ministers close to Syria suspended participation in the government after it voted last night to seek a UN investigation into a series of assassinations that have rocked Lebanon over the past 14 months.

A sixth Christian minister loyal to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud also walked out of the session.

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The Shia ministers, all loyal to Hizbullah and Amal groups, opposed the call for a UN inquiry into the killing of Mr Tueni and others, but were outvoted by ministers who campaigned with Mr Tueni for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon in April after 29 years.

The government also called on the United Nations to form a tribunal of an "international character" to try suspects in the killing of Mr Hariri.

Hours after Mr Tueni's murder, a UN inquiry team reported it had fresh evidence to reinforce earlier findings of Syrian involvement in Mr Hariri's murder and that Damascus had hindered the investigation.

The report to the UN Security Council by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis also said Syria had burned some papers relating to Lebanon and pressured one witness to recant his testimony.

It said there were 19 suspects, whom it did not identify, including five Syrians questioned by UN investigators in Vienna this month.

The 15-member Council weighs its response to Mehlis's report at a meeting later on Tuesday.

Mr Tueni, a fierce critic of Syria's policies in Lebanon who was elected to parliament this year, said in August he believed he was on a hit list for assassination. He had spent much of his time since then in Paris but returned to Beirut on Sunday.