SYRIA'S Interior Minister committed suicide in his office early Wednesday, reports Sami Mobayed from Damascus. Kanaan was questioned by United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis last month in relation with the assassination of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri. Shortly before his death, Kanaan gave an interview to Sawt Lubnan (Voice of Lebanon) radio, saying that the interview was his final declaration. In the interview, Kanaan defended the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon, saying they had "done their utmost to preserve the unity of Lebanon" during Syria's 29-year presence in lebanon. Named interior minister in October 2004, Kanaan had served between 1982 and 2003 as Syrian military intelligence chief for Lebanon. He was born in 1942 in Latakia and studied at the Homs Military Academy. He rose in rank steadily, becoming chief of intelligence in Homs before being dispatched to Lebanon in 1982. He helped broker alliances with Lebanon's warring militias, most notably those of the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Shia leader Nabih Berri, and the Lebanese Christian militia leader Elie Hobeika, assasinated in 2002. Kanaan was accused of having obstructed the 17 May 1983 Agreement between Israel and Lebanese President Amin Gemayel. He had worked closely with the late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and Vice-President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who orchestrated the Tripartite Agreement between Berri, Jumblatt, and Hobeika in December 1985.
