Not all believe Syria's powerful interior minister killed himself. Rasha Saad reviews the theories Just a couple of weeks before the announcement of the results of the Detlev Mehlis report investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri, news of the death of Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan, who headed Syrian intelligence in Lebanon for 20 years and was dubbed the most powerful figure in Lebanon, was shocking. Arab commentators say that until the truth emerges Kanaan's death will remain a mystery. Many, especially those who were close to the minister, find it hard to believe that he committed suicide because of "media pressure" as was claimed. Selim Nassar in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper wrote that the Syrian opposition refuses to believe the official Syrian version that Kanaan committed suicide. The opposition figures argue that the death might be the result of an internal struggle. "The interior minister was the last witness to the era of Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and that his existence had become uncomfortable to the leaders of the new era." According to Nassar, these figures expect that the next few days will witness a widespread process of eradication that might be directed at the old guards. Abdel-Wahab Badrakhan in Al-Hayat sounded puzzled. "Ghazi Kanaan committing suicide? Perhaps. We shall wait and see." Badrakhan reviewed the three theories that were circulated following Kanaan's death: he might have committed suicide, was murdered or someone "helped him" into taking this sole option. Badrakhan notes that the last statement Kanaan gave, to the Lebanese radio station The Voice of Lebanon -- in which he vehemently refuted reports aired by the Lebanese NTV satellite station that he gave Mehlis documents showing that he had financial dealings with Al-Hariri and thus, because of such a friendship, had nothing to do with his assassination -- is a good indicator that the man was passing through a psychological crisis. However, Badrakhan adds, "had Kanaan not taken the decision to commit suicide, the report aired on NTV would not have intimidated him. He had heard many criticisms in the past, prior to this report, that deserved to be answered, yet he never did." Badrakhan thus reaches the conclusion that Kanaan "may have known that he was chosen as a scapegoat, or at least one of the scapegoats." Badrakhan explains that those who were concerned with Mehlis's investigation had a spontaneous reaction, concluding that Kanaan's suicide was part of the process of eliminating "witnesses". "Was Ghazi Kanaan an unreliable witness? Or did he feel that he could no longer handle the role that was required of him?' Badrakhan asked. Also in Al-Hayat Zouheir Kseibati does not buy the suicide theory. "Was suicide the only way to respond to those in Lebanon with political aspirations, or to object to the TV report by piercing his being once and for all?" Kseibati ruled out internal disputes as a reason. "Many may find it hard to believe that Kanaan committed suicide simply because it was suggested to him that there was an inclination to oust him out of the government." Walid Choucair wrote in Al-Hayat that based on the reports Kanaan's death is one of the repercussions being referred to with respect to the present investigation into Al-Hariri's assassination. "These repercussions do not stop. They are serious and dramatic security and political repercussions that Lebanon and the region will bear." This is, according to Choucair, what makes one believe that the suicide mystery will remain as such for a period of time or it shall forever remain a secret because it was buried with Kanaan. In an article entitled 'Suicide? I don't think so', Abdul- Rahman Al-Rashed tries to sum it all up. "The Syrian interior minister died from a single bullet they said he fired himself with. This is something that is hard to believe. We know very well that not a single Arab politician commits suicide and there is no culture of suicide except in Bin Laden's clique where paradise is promised" Al-Rashed wrote in the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat. Al-Rashed, however, provides ideas of what might have happened. Kanaan's suicide was an execution whose aim was probably to get rid of a bad legacy in its entirety and which could lead to the disappearance of others involved in a situation that has brought Damascus to where it is now. "It could be just a case of getting rid of a finger that has left its prints on the crime scene." Al-Rashed assumes that many people will not really be bothered whether Kanaan was killed or committed suicide because of what he describes as "his not laudable record." However, he believes, two questions remain unanswered: why and what next. The Lebanese An-Nahar implied that Kanaan may have chosen to commit suicide "after witnessing his Lebanese 'empire' revolt and his dream dashed that one day the Lebanese people will choose with full will their unity with Syria and that the two countries will be one nation and one people."
