19 - 25 July 2001
Issue No.543
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 19 - 25 July 2001 Issue No.543 |
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Israel throws a few stones
A row over a UNIFIL video footage shot the day after Hizbullah abducted three Israeli soldiers has placed the UN in an embarrassing situation. Zeina Abu Rizk reports from Beirut
The United Nations is finding itself in an awkward situation over a videotape taken by UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last October. The tape, shot the day after three Israeli soldiers were snatched from the occupied Shebaa Farms, contains footage of vehicles abandoned by the kidnappers as well as of members of Hizbullah trying to prevent UN forces towing the cars away.
The UN's handling of the affair has led both Lebanon and Israel to question the role of the UN's at the Lebanese-Israeli border. Israel, Lebanon and Hizbullah have all harshly criticised the UN plan to hand over an edited version of the tape -- with the faces of suspected Hizbullah members erased -- to the Lebanese and Israeli authorities for examination, .
The Lebanese authorities, as well as Hizbullah, condemn the plan to hand the videotape to Israel. They even declined to look at it themselves, saying that such a move would contradict the principles of all international charters and also the role of the UN forces.
The Lebanese authorities explained that, by handing over the tape to Israel, the UN would be playing the role of an informatory body working on behalf of the Israelis, while all information collected by the UN should remain confidential, belonging exclusively to the UN.
In Israel, the existence of the tape, originally denied by senior UN officials, has caused a furor. The Israelis have accused the UN of a cover-up, and are demanding an unedited version of the tape. The UN's initial denial of the tape's existence was considered by Tel Aviv as a sign that the UN was being biased on the matter.
However, Israel's attack on the UN over its handling of the tape is being seen as an attempt to discredit the international body at a time when consideration is being given to UN observers' overseeing the shaky cease-fire agreement in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel may also be trying to undermine UNIFIL's role at the Lebanese-Israeli border on the eve of the end-of-July deadline for the extension of the peace-keepers' mandate. The tape issue will be the focus of a meeting this week between Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
After a harsh campaign launched by Israel against the UN, Ben- Eliezer tried to smooth the waters over the weekend by asserting that Israel was not accusing the UN of facilitating kidnapping operations carried out by Hizbullah.
The video was shot on 8 October 2000, the day following the abduction of three Israeli soldiers from the Shebaa Pond Gate, beside the UN-delineated Blue Line. The footage shows two vehicles abandoned near the village of Kfar Hamam after they were used to spirit away the Israelis. Indian peace-keepers found UNIFIL paraphernalia inside the vehicles, including badges, UN symbols and blue berets -- believed to have been used by the kidnappers -- along with explosives and blood stains.
The video, shot on the personal initiative of an Indian soldier, also shows footage of Hizbullah members attempting to stop the UNIFIL soldiers from towing the cars away. UN investigations into incidents in the field are usually backed with photographic rather than videotape evidence.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN under secretary-general for peace- keeping operations, was asked about the existence of the tape by the Israeli authorities during a visit to Lebanon and Israel in May. After checking with the UN headquarters, Guehenno discovered that the video shot by the soldier did exist and had been handed to the UN by the former UNIFIL commander, Major General Seth Kofi Obeng.
The first official Israeli request for the video came in June. Since then, Israel has repeated its demand for the tape, although it contains nothing new. Lebanese television stations and the Al- Jazeera satellite network broadcast the same scene at the time. The UN also told the Israelis exactly what was found in the vehicles a few days later.
A UNIFIL officer said there was concern that peace-keepers could be subject to harassment or worse if the tape were handed over to the Israelis.
President Emile Lahoud said that Lebanon regarded the showing of the tape as a dangerous precedent. The transfer of information from Lebanese soil to the Israeli enemy represents a departure from the mission of the international forces in the South," he said.
Hizbullah said in a statement: "This issue has raised several serious questions about the nature of the United Nations' mission in south Lebanon, especially with regard to transferring information to (Israel).
In a letter to the UN secretary-general, Ben-Eliezer said the viewing arrangements offered by the UN were "disappointing and disturbing."
"We believe that once the UN recognises the validity of the Israeli request (for the tape), its decision not to hand the original film to Israel is altogether puzzling and disturbing," he said.
The anti-UN campaign being waged in the Israeli media includes accusations that Indian UNIFIL soldiers accepted bribes from Hizbullah, and that they helped in the capture of the three soldiers. These accusations were firmly rejected by UN officials, who were outraged by what they considered as "total slander."
UNIFIL senior adviser Timur Goksel hotly denies the charge. "These accusations are nothing but outright slander and lies," he says.
"It is an incredible campaign like I have never seen before in my life. Sources are being created out of thin air," Goksel added. "It is an incredible piece of creative writing. The Indians are among the best-trained soldiers serving in the Middle East, if not the world. They do not deserve this treatment by the Israelis."
UN sources said they had little doubt that the storm over the tape was being deliberately stirred by the Israeli authorities in a bid to cast the international body as a biased and inefficient organisation at a time when a possibility is emerging that UN observers could be sent to the West Bank and Gaza to monitor the fragile cease-fire between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
"This fuss has nothing to do with events on the ground (in Lebanon)," a UN official said.
Another UNIFIL officer described the affair as a "mess," and said Israel was mounting a propaganda campaign against the peace-keeping force to "disguise their own negligence in allowing three of their soldiers to be kidnapped in the first place."
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