Former Lebanese Leader, KSG Donor Killed

In an incident that has sparked an international diplomatic flare-up, the former prime minister of Lebanon—who was a benefactor of the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and an opponent of Syrian involvement in Lebanon—was killed Monday when a massive explosion ripped through his motorcade in Beirut.

In response, the United States withdrew its ambassador from Syria yesterday, expressing concern about Syria’s 16,000 troops in Lebanon and pressing Syria to take more effective anti-terrorism measures. U.S. officials said they don’t know who was behind the bombing.

Rafik Hariri, who died along with seven of his bodyguards in the explosion, was 60.

According to the Associated Press, police reported that 14 were killed and 120 injured in the blast.

Hariri amassed a large fortune in Saudi Arabia, where he created a construction company that became one of the largest in the Middle East. He used this money to a support a variety of causes, including education and the rebuilding of Lebanon.

In 1992, Hariri established the Rafiq Hariri Professorship of International Political Economy at the KSG, which is currently held by Professor Dani Rodrik.

Hariri also established the Hariri Foundation in 1979. This foundation, dedicated to providing educational opportunities for Lebanese scholars, has provided funds to help students at the Kennedy School studying Lebanon.

Wissam Yafi, a 2002 KSG graduate, did research in the summer of 2000 on development in Lebanon since the end of its civil war. His research was funded by the Hariri Foundation, and Hariri helped him gain access to government officials and records.

“It’s just a great shame that the leader who was behind it was killed in such a fashion,” he said. “I was very impressed with the man.”

Yafi predicted that Hariri’s death would not be the end of his legacy.

“You just don’t kill Hariri’s vision; you build on it,” he said.

David J. Thompson, the public relations coordinator for the Hariri Foundation in the United States, said the foundation will continue to promote Hariri’s mission of education.

“The whole [Hariri] family is dedicated to the cause of Lebanon, and especially to building up its human resources through education,” Thompson said. “I anticipate that dedication will not change.”

In a message posted on the KSG website, Dean David T. Ellwood ’75 called Hariri “a distinguished member of the Kennedy School’s extended family” and expressed sadness over the death of “one of the most influential and most forward-looking leaders in the Middle East.”

“His philanthropic activities have benefited organizations and individuals around the world....The Kennedy School has greatly benefited from Mr. Hariri’s generosity,” Ellwood wrote. “I am sure all members of the Kennedy School community join me in extending our condolences to Mr. Hariri’s family and loved ones, and to his country.”

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Much of Hariri’s political career was defined by his opposition to pro-Syrian elements of Lebanon’s government.

While Hariri was always careful not to directly criticize Syria, he resigned from his position as prime minister in 2004 when Syria ordered the Lebanese parliament to amend its constitution and allow a pro-Syrian Lebanese president to serve past the existing constitutional limit.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said President Bush was “shocked and angered” by Monday’s attack, according to a transcript of Monday’s press conference on the White House website.

“[Hariri’s] murder is an attempt to stifle these efforts to build an independent, sovereign Lebanon free of foreign domination,” McClellan said, adding that the United States will look into measures “to punish those responsible for this terrorist attack” and to free Lebanon from “foreign occupation.”

When asked about Syria, McClellan stressed that “it’s premature to know who was responsible for this attack. But we continue to be concerned about the foreign occupation in Lebanon.”

Yesterday, U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher announced that the State Department has recalled the ambassador to Syria, Margaret Scobey, for “urgent consultations” in Washington. Before leaving, Scobey delivered a message to the Syrian government expressing the United States’ “deep concern as well as our profound outrage over this heinous act of terrorism,” according to a press release on the State Department website.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.