UN Covers Up Hezbollah Terrorism
by David Krusch
On October 7, 2000, three
Israeli soldiers, Sgt. Adi Avitan, Sgt.
Binyamin Avraham, and Sgt. Omer Saued, were patrolling
the Mt.
Dov sector of Israel-Lebanese border when they
were ambushed by Hezbollah terrorists.
The terrorists crossed the border into Israel,
detonated a roadside bomb injuring the soldiers, and
abducted them back into Lebanon.
Subsequent investigations found that the Hezbollah
men dressed in United
Nations personnel garb, used
vehicles covered in fake UN insignia, and slipped inside
Israel to carry out the ambush of the soldiers. The
soldiers may have been lured to the border fence upon
seeing the UN markings on the vehicles. When the United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) discovered
the vehicles, they found them covered in blood.
The attack was apparently conducted
a sign of solidarity with the new wave of Palestinian
terrorism against Israel. According to The Jerusalem
Post, Hezbollah
leader Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah admitted that Hezbollah
was holding the soldiers, and was refusing to allow
the International
Red Cross into Lebanon to visit the
soldiers. Nasrallah also told reporters that he wanted
to trade the three IDF soldiers for Lebanese and Palestinian
terrorists held in Israeli prisons.
On October 8, less than 18 hours after
the ambush, UNIFIL troops attempted to remove the contents
inside the vehicles and tow away the vehicles, both
of which were found wrecked after the kidnappings.
One Indian UNIFIL worker was videotaping the actions
of his fellow troops removing the materials. At the
end of the tape, there was some footage taken of armed
Hezbollah fighters storming the area and intercepting
the vehicles from the UNIFIL troops. The UNIFIL troops
turned over the vehicles to the Hezbollah men to avoid
an armed skirmish. Official UN workers now had in their
possession a videotape that might have helped Israel
in some way find its kidnapped soldiers.
However, for nearly a year, top UN
officials, including Secretary
General Kofi Annan,
denied having any possession of such a videotape. But
on July 6, 2001, the UN confessed that it did in fact
possess the video shot by the Indian UNIFIL worker.
The exact reasons for the UN coverup of tape are unknown,
but there are some indications that the denial was
intentional. Hezbollah did cross over the Israeli border
in a UN patrolled area, implying that UNIFIL would
have most likely known about the plot ahead of time
but did nothing to stop it.
After the official UN confession,
Annan ordered an investigation into the handling of
the tape. UN undersecretary-General Joseph Connor produced
an 18-page report which stated the UN actually had
two more videotapes of the incident, as well as more
than 50 items taken from the vehicles, several of which
were covered in blood. While Connor did say that the
UN was guilty in lapses of judgement regarding the
tape, he did not go as far to say that the UN cooperated
with Hezbollah or that the UN intentionally lied to
Israel. Annan subsequently apologized to Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, saying that “serious errors
in judgment were made, in particular, by those who
failed to convey information to the Israelis, which
would have been helpful in an assessment of the condition
of the three abducted soldiers.” The Connor report
also included a statement from a UNIFIL officer saying
that the kidnapped soldiers died from their wounds.
As for the actual tape, the Israeli government requested the tape to help investigate
the incident and hopefully recover the soldiers.
Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin
Ben-Eliezer sent a strongly worded letter to UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan on July 8, 2001, calling the UN’s
decision not to hand over the video "altogether puzzling
and incongruous." The UN however, refused to give
the tape to Israel, saying that it wanted to remain
neutral in the region. UN Under-Secretary-General
for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno claimed
that since "south Lebanon is a war zone," giving
an unedited tape to Israel, “would be considered by
one party as providing intelligence to another party and
would certainly put in danger the security of our people
in Lebanon." Israeli officials pointed
out that not only was Israel the victim in this kidnapping,
but that the UNIFIL officials ought to have prevented the
abduction in the first place, fulfilling their mandate as
peacekeepers – it was their job to keep the area from
becoming a war zone.
On July 30, 2001, United States House of Representatives adopted a resolution, by a 411-4 vote,
calling on the UN to release the tape. On August 5, 2001,
the UN admitted that they were also in possession of a second
video pertaining to the investigation. With its credibility
shattered, the United entered damage control mode. The UN
publicly acknowledged that “serious errors of judgement
were made, in particular, by those who failed to convey information
to the Israelis, which would have been helpful in an assessment
of the condition of the three abducted soldiers.” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan even apologized directly
to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
Finally, almost ten months after the kidnapping occurred,
the UN agreed to allow Israel to look at an unedited version
of the videotapes and to view items retrieved from the vehicles
that UNIFIL forces removed from the scene. However, the UN placed
sharp restrictions on when and how Israel could view the
tape:
- The tapes would be edited to hide the identity
of the kidnappers
- The first viewing of the tapes, at the UN
headquarters in New
York, would be for an Israeli
team including Israeli military officers and
Israeli ambassador to the UN David Lancry
- A second viewing session, in Vienna, would be for
the families of the kidnapped soldiers
- Only some of the items taken from the car would
be handed over to Israel
- Israeli officials cannot view the tape more than three times total.
The UN said it placed these restrictions
on Israel in order to maintain its neutrality on the
issue. In the end, Israel agreed upon the UN conditions,
including the editing of the tape.
The IDF pronounced the three soldiers
dead on November 1, 2001. Their remains were returned
to their families in a prisoner
exchange on January 29, 2004.
Sources: “Israel
and the United Nations: The Har Dov Kidnapping;” Lenny
Ben-David, “Israeli Captives in Lebanon,” HonestReporting.com,
(November 11, 2002); Arutz Sheva (July 8, 2001); UN Wire (July 8, 2001, August 5, 2001) |