SYRIA: Interior minister commits suicide, official news agency says

[SOO MAAL]

SYRIA: Interior minister commits suicide, official news agency says

12 Oct 2005 13:46:20 GMT

 

Source: IRIN

 

DUBAI, 12 October (IRIN) - Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, an army general who ran formerly ran Syria's intelligence operation in Lebanon, committed suicide in his office on Wednesday, Syria's official news agency SANA reported.

 

He died two weeks after being interviewed by UN officials investigating the death of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was blown up by a truck bomb in Beirut on 14 February.

 

Many Lebanese accuse Syria of organizing Hariri's assassination.

 

The Syrian government denied any involvement in his death, but it sparked off a wave of public protest at Syria's continued military presence in Lebanon and at alleged Syrian interference in Lebanese politics.

 

This forced Damascus to withdraw 14,000 Syrian troops stationed in the country. It had maintained a military presence there for 29 years.

 

The UN commission of inquiry investigating Hariri's killing is due to submit its report to the UN Security Council on 25 October.

 

There has been much speculation in the international media that this report will implicate the Syrian government directly in his assassination.

 

Kanaan, who was aged about 62, was Syria's chief of military intelligence in Lebanon from 1982 to 2002.

 

He was recalled to Damascus to become the government's director of political security and was appointed Interior Minister in 2004.

 

On 30 June, the US government accused Kanaan of supporting terrorism and ordered his assets to be frozen, along with those of Rustum Ghazali, the man who succeeded him as Syria's intelligence supremo in Lebanon.

 

US Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement at the time that both men were "bad actors supporting Syria's efforts to destabilize its neighbours."

 

SANA gave no details of how or why Kanaan killed himself.

 

"The cabinet announces the death of Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan in his office at the beginning of the afternoon," it said in a statement. "The relevant authorities are investigating," it added.

 

Shortly before he died, Kanaan gave a telephone interview to the Voice of Lebanon radio station in which he was questioned about the investigation into Hariri's death.

 

Kanaan said at one point in the conversation; "I think this is the last statement I might give."

[SOO MAAL]

Analysis: death of a Syrian minister

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick Blanford, Lebanon Correspondent for The Times, explains why Syrians will doubt that their Interior Minister, Ghazi Kanaan really committed suicide today

 

"In Syria the plot is king. Even if Ghazi Kanaan did commit suicide, most Lebanese are going to jump to the conclusion that he was murdered.

 

"His death seems to kill two birds with one stone. The Syrian regime can now use Kanaan as a scapegoat over the UN investigation into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. It also eliminates a potential challenge to the current regime and the presidency.

 

"Kanaan was a very powerful figure from the Alawi sect which is at the core of the Syrian regime. After 21 years as the effective ruler of Lebanon he went back to Damascus and the following year was made Interior Minister.

 

"He was one of the old guard from the time of former president Hafez Assad, whose son, Bashar, has slowly got rid of his father's generation. Now there are only a couple left. Kanaan was nonetheless a very powerful figure.

 

"He was a strong-willed man, very sharp and intelligent, who had weathered many crises over the years from the mid-1970s throughout Lebanon's civil war. He dealt with the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s, the chaos and disorder, and he was able to survive all this and come through unscathed.

 

"He was a very capable figure and it doesn't make much sense that at this stage in his life he would kill himself just because he might be implicated in Hariri's assassination. That wasn't very likely anyway. He had a good relationship with Hariri, after working with him for a number of years.

 

"Like Hariri, Kanaan opposed extending by three years the mandate of the pro-Syrian Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud.

 

"He was one of the old regime figures who were more realistic and correctly foresaw that extending Mr Lahoud's presidency would cause problems. He warned that Syria was in enough trouble with the US as it was.

 

"Kanaan was seen as a potential alternative to President Bashar al-Assad, which made him something of a threat. There have been rumours for some months that Kanaan was going to be kicked out of government.

 

"I have just been talking to a very prominent Damascus analyst, who predicts that Kanaan will be blamed for the Hariri assassination.

 

"This would lift the international pressure off the Syrian regime, and avoid the risk that Kanaan might launch a coup backed by the US and take over the presidency."