Beirut  - Both Marawan Hamadeh and May Chidiac are what are now known in Lebanon as "living martyrs" - people who have survived an assassination attempt for their anti-Syrian views.

For Hamadeh, a former government minister, and TV-anchor Chidiac, the launch on March 1st of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon offers the chance of closure, after years of suffering.

The tribunal, operating in The Hague under Lebanese law with an international panel of judges, was initially established to prosecute those behind the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut in February 2005.

But the establishment of the tribunal also provided for the prosecution of individuals that carried out a spate of similar, seemingly politically motivated attacks before and after Hariri's murder.

The attempt on Hamadeh near his home on 1st October 2004, was the first of those attacks, and now the 69-year-old politician is depending on the new Hague tribunal for redress, he says. The blast killed his driver and injured his bodyguard.

I believe the bomb, which was aimed at killing me, was a political message from the Syrian regime to my close allies Walid Jumblatt and the late martyr (Rafik Hariri) and that they would be next if they continued to oppose Syria's influence in Lebanon," Hamdah told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

Hamadah, who is a Druze, has consistently publicly accused Syria of ordering his assassination.

He believes that he became a target after he resigned from the Lebanese government in September 2004 in protest against Syria's pressure to extend then Lebanese president Emile Lahoud's presidential term beyond its constitutional limit. Lahoud was widely seen as "Syria's man" in Lebanon.

Sitting on the balcony of his Beirut apartment overlooking the scene of the bombing that nearly took his life, he told dpa: "I now can rely on the UN tribunal to give me and others justice to find out who exactly masterminded the assassinations in Lebanon."

"I will respect the decisions of the court," he said. "Im positive the court will reach final decisions even if the process takes some time," he added.

"I have to tell you my scars will not heal until I know who were the murderers," he added firmly.

The explosion left Hamadeh burned and battered. He had broken ribs, head injuries, and nearly lost an eye. What saved him, he believes, is the fact that his car hit a wall and didn't turn over following the blast.

Hamadeh stressed that despite the pain he suffered from his wounds, it was the Hariri assassination in 2005 that shattered his emotions. He had yet to recover from its repercussions, he said.

I will not recover from Hariri's assassination, unless I see the people who plotted it behind bars," he added with tears in his eyes.

In a different Beirut neighbourhood, in a Christian dominated area, theres even more anger. This is where May Chidiac, a prominent journalist, talk-show host and out-spoken critic of Syria lives.

Chidiac had her leg blown off and lost an arm in a car-bombing in September 2005 - on the same day on she had hosted a talk show warning of the dangers of Syria's involvement in Lebanon.

Despite her handicaps, Chidiac managed to return to the television screen after ten months and 30 surgeries. She told dpa that she hoped the UN Special Tribunal would nail" whoever plotted and executed her assassination attempt.

I returned to the television screen to tell those who tried to silence me that they could nail neither me nor my principles," she said.

Chidiac said that she daily remembered every single detail of the explosion that almost killed her.

I can still hear the sound of the blast, the heat of the smoke, the taste of blood in my mouth," she said.

I am convinced that the aggressors wanted to eliminate me, for I had spoken my mind, for I believed in a free democratic Lebanon," she added.

Yes, I lost my left hand. Yes, I lost my left leg. I have burns all over my body. I lived nine months in hospitals. I had 30 surgeries, but I believe justice will be done in the end," she added.

Despite the anger that Chidiac bears and the emotional pain Hamadeh suffers as a result of the assassination attempts against them, they both insist they believe that for the first time, criminals in an Arab country are under international scrutiny, and that would be a lesson for other criminals elsewhere. (dpa)