(July 9) - In case there was any doubt, the UN videotape affair demonstrates how international observer forces fail to meet their own mandates, let alone basic standards of fairness. The United Nations should release the full, uncensored videotape to Israel, but even this is not enough - the UN's handling of this matter should be fully investigated.
The videotape in question was filmed by a member of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) a few hours after the abduction of three Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah last October 7. The videotape shows Hizbullah removing the vehicles they used in the abduction, which were disguised as UN vehicles. The cars were reportedly stained with the blood of the soldiers and, from an investigatory point of view, are important pieces of evidence in piecing together what happened.
At a press conference on Friday, the UN announced it would make a special exception to its rules of "neutrality" and would show the videotape to Lebanese and Israeli authorities, but with the faces of non-UN personnel - believed to be Hizbullah gunmen - obscured. The UN's strange concept of neutrality begs the question of why it was sent there in the first place, and why Israel should ever contemplate expanding the UN's role in the region.
UN Security Council Resolution 425 states plainly that UNIFIL was created "for the purpose of confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and security, and assisting the Government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area." UNIFIL's job of "restoring international peace" means that it is nonsense to argue that the UN must be neutral between Hizbullah kidnappers and Israel's efforts to obtain information about the three kidnapped soldiers.
The UN itself admits that the Hizbullah kidnapping was a gross violation of Resolution 425, while asserting that Israel, by withdrawing to the UN-confirmed "Blue Line," has fulfilled its part of Resolution 425 to the letter. Yet now the UN is openly displaying its dependence on Hizbullah and its fear of offending its hosts.
According to a report in Yediot Aharonot that has been strenuously denied by the UN, an officer in the Indian UNIFIL regiment stated, "There was a fiasco by some of our troops. On the day of the abduction we were observing the area of Shaba Farms, when suddenly a loud explosion was heard from the area of the gate beneath our outpost. We should have gone there and closed the road to prevent Hizbullah men from moving north, but we didn't do that." Now Israel is demanding to interview all the UNIFIL soldiers who were at the outpost near the kidnapping that day.
The UN's credibility is on the line here. The suspicion that UNIFIL may have been in a position to prevent what it admits was a gross violation of the resolution it was sent to enforce, and failed to do so, should be fully investigated.
The Hizbullah operation was carried out almost literally under the noses of UNIFIL soldiers. Even if these soldiers had standing orders not to intervene in any fighting, they certainly had a mandate to observe and report. Indeed, if so much as an Israeli sandbag crosses the Blue Line, UNIFIL does duly report. Yet it is clear that UNIFIL not only did not turn over a videotape of the Hizbullah vehicles used in the kidnapping, but is still trying to protect the identity of the kidnappers.
In an official letter just sent by Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer to UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, Israel states that "the decision not to transfer the original videotape to Israel raises doubts ... regarding the completeness of the video." Further, Ben-Eliezer questions why Israel and Lebanon are being treated equally when "our citizens, not theirs, were kidnapped and it is our soldiers who have been held for the last nine months without anyone knowing their fate."
Before Israel's withdrawal, UNIFIL repeatedly earned Israel's ire by acting essentially as a shield for Hizbullah fire: Hizbullah would launch its artillery attacks 50 meters from a UNIFIL post, and then UNIFIL would complain when Israel returned fire. Now that Israel has withdrawn, Hizbullah seems to be once again hiding behind the skirts of UNIFIL's "neutrality." If the UN does not reveal to Israel any and all knowledge it has regarding the kidnapping, it will be proof once again that UN forces do not contribute to international peace and security, but to those who seek the opposite.