UN Reports Israel Border Violations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000626/aponline201857_000.htm

UN Reports Israel Border Violations

By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press Writer
Monday, June 26, 2000; 8:18 p.m. EDT

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon reported half a dozen Israeli border violations Monday, backing Lebanese government claims that Israel's troops have been violating the withdrawal line drawn by the United Nations.
The Security Council called for an immediate end to the violations, but council president Jean-David Levitte of France stressed that they were minor and expressed hope they would be cleared up in a few days.
Since the Israeli army's withdrawal from southern Lebanon last month, the Lebanese government has repeatedly accused Israeli troops of violating the U.N. line, which was drawn as a temporary border between the two nations. There have also been frequent border incidents, with Lebanese demonstrators taunting Israeli soldiers and pelting them with stones.
Ten days ago, the United Nations said it had verified that Israel had completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory. That verification won endorsement from the U.N. Security Council on June 18.
But on Monday, in its first report since the verification, the peacekeeping force cited only Israeli violations.
In four instances, the Israeli army is still using patrol roads cutting into Lebanese territory. Israeli soldiers were seen in trenches on the Lebanese side of the border and three Israeli machine gun posts and some observation equipment were still in Lebanon, the report said. One Lebanese claim of Israeli encroachment was found not to be a violation.
"We all agreed in the Security Council that these violations should be corrected as soon as possible," said France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte, the current council president. "Most of them are very limited violations, and I guess they will be corrected in the coming hours and days."
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and occupied part of southern Lebanon as a buffer against guerrilla attacks on northern Israel from 1985 until its withdrawal on May 24. Under 1978 Security Council resolutions, U.N. peacekeeping troops were charged with verifying any Israeli pullout, and after they did so, the 4,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in the region was supposed to deploy to the border area.
Levitte said the Lebanese government wants to be sure there are no more violations of the withdrawal line before giving "a green light" for deployment of the force.
The Security Council hopes "it's a matter of hour or days at most" before the force, which is expected to increase to 5,600 next month, can be deployed, he said.
The Lebanese government is already sending teams of armed forces and police to southern Lebanon, and the council doesn't anticipate any difficulties in coordinating the U.N. deployment with them, he said.
Also Monday, the Security Council held its first-ever video-conferencing meeting: It talked to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who reported from Geneva on his recent seven-nation Mideast trip, including stops in Lebanon and Israel.
Western diplomats said the secretary-general reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is determined to see an end to border violations, but Annan was not certain the lower ranks of the army had the same degree of conviction. Annan suggested to Barak that a high-ranking officer be placed in charge of the Lebanese border area to ensure that Israeli soldiers don't cross the withdrawal line, the diplomats said.
Despite the minor Israeli violations, council members were upbeat and commended the secretary-general for putting the situation in Lebanon back on track.
"The secretary-general made progress in having ... recognition throughout the region that Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon," deputy U.S. ambassador Nancy Soderberg said.
Annan also succeeded in convincing the Lebanese that the Israelis have withdrawn and the incidents should be treated as violations, she said.
British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said the secretary-general brought the Israeli and Lebanese governments back to realizing that the U.N. line drawn to verify the withdrawal is not the international border. The final border remains to be determined, probably after the two countries sign a peace agreement.

(C) Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/06/27/LatestNews/LatestNews.8784.html

UN: Israel violating Lebanese border

The United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sided yesterday with Lebanese claims that Israel is violating the Israeli-Lebanese border agreements, BBC reports.
The UN states that Israeli violations include the IDF's driving on patrol roads going through Lebanese territory and the use of trenches on the Lebanese side of the border. The IDF also left machine gun posts and observation equipment in Lebanon, the report says.
UN Security Council President Jean-David Levitte says that these "are very limited violations" and "will be corrected in the coming hours and days."
Meanwhile, Israel wants to scrap the present border agreement and start again, the Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star reports. This demand has not yet been delivered to the UN.
Lebanon is unhappy with the results of the withdrawal agreement and that Israel wants to begin the process anew shows it shares Lebanon's discontent, the report stressed.

Back to our section on the Jewish war against Lebanon