June Tuesday 13-2000:
Introduction
Hizbullah's Deputy Secretary General H.E. Sheikh
Nahim Qassem said the late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad "was a great and
strong man who had served Lebanon and its Resistance", asserting that
""Israel" will not be getting any gains at this historic
stage". Qassem reiterated demanding strictness in the trials of
collaborators in order to fortify the country and citizens.
In the meantime, the process of verifying the
"Israeli" withdrawal from South Lebanon went at a snail's pace because
of Lebanese insistence on checking every centimeter to ensure there was no
mistake. A UN source commented that "at this rate we will need several more
days".
Elsewhere, a teenage youth lost his left leg on
Monday when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine left by the "Israeli"
occupation forces near the former "Israeli" outpost of Ali Taher near
Kfar Tibnite town.
Hizbullah: Assad's death will change nothing; no gains
for "Israel"
(1)
Hizbullah's
Deputy Secretary General his Eminence Sheikh Nahim Qassem said the late Syrian
President Hafez al-Assad "was a great and strong man who had served Lebanon
and its Resistance besides contributing in the liberation process and having
great roles."
Speaking
at a commemoration rally in the town of Aramta, Qassem said, "We tell those
who are betting on changes following President Assad's death: all the things are
moving in the direction of a quiet shift of authority without any major changes
neither in Syria nor in Lebanon. ""Israel"" will not be
getting any gains at this historic stage."
Sheikh
Qassem reiterated Hizbullah's position on the collaborators, demanding
strictness in their trials in order to fortify the country and the citizens and
return things to normal course.
The
Lebanese law punishes theft with detention in public right affairs up to one
year. Is it then acceptable that those who have betrayed their country have some
people seeking excuses for them to show that they were not traitors for 22 years
but poor oppressed people, and during their fear they had been forced to kill
and destroy", he said.
This
logic is neither acceptable nor credible; who says these collaborators are
affiliated with one sect or group? He asked.
Strict
trials must be adopted to prevent others from daring to collaborate (with the
enemy) in the future and in order to not to read in the newspapers that some
wish they were collaborators as they see the lenient trials, Sheikh Qassem
concluded.
Step by step: "Israeli" frontier takes
shape
(2)
Just meters away from the border with
"Israel", two generals, one Lebanese, the other Irish, squint in the
bright midday sun at an array of hand-held electronic devices as an aide reads
out a list of coordinates.
Are we okay? asks Brigadier General Jim Sreenan, the Irish officer who
serves as UNIFILs deputy commander.
Yes, were in agreement, replies General Amin Hoteit.
Smiles break out among the multinational group of soldiers clustered around the
generals. Mabrouk, someone calls out.
The location of Boundary Pillar 26 on the border between Lebanon and
"Israel" has just been formally approved and verified by the Lebanese
Army and the United Nations.
The process of confirming "Israel's" withdrawal from Lebanon began
last Thursday when two teams on either side of the border set out from Ras
Naqoura on the coast. The separate Lebanese and "Israeli" teams were
accompanied by UN officers belonging to both UNIFIL and the Observer Group
Lebanon, part of the UN Truce Supervision Organization.
Ahead of them lay a little more than 100 kilometers of international border,
ending near Shibaa Village, none of which has been verified independently since
the early 1950s.
Sreenan said that UNIFILs task and the work of the accompanying Lebanese
officers differed slightly. We have two different purposes here really, he
said. Were here to confirm the withdrawal of "Israeli" forces
from Lebanon. The Lebanese are checking the precise demarcation of the
border.
The Irish general explained that UNIFILs task was relatively straightforward.
We can see easily whether there is an "Israeli" position on
Lebanese soil, he said. Precisely measuring the delineation of the border was
a more painstaking exercise.
So the process takes a little longer, he said.
Time, however, is in short supply, at least as far as the UN is concerned. UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been badgering the government to speed up the
process of verifying the border, thus enabling plans for UNIFILs expansion
and new deployment to proceed.
But Lebanon has aired some objections to the line drawn up by a UN team of
cartographers, headed by Annans special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, behind which
the "Israelis" are supposed to withdraw.
Annan decreed last month that the withdrawal line should follow the 1923
Anglo-French boundary ratified by the 1949 Armistice Agreement.
Larsen, however, appears to have acquiesced, in part, to "Israeli"
security demands and has deviated his line from the 1923 border in a few places.
The three areas of contention cited by Lebanon are near Rmeish, where
"Israel" reportedly has yet to fully dismantle an incursion zone, at
the kibbutz of Misgav Am above Odaisseh and at Ghajar, village on the
Lebanese-Syrian border.
Consequently, progress has been slower than Annan would have preferred.
Everyone is talking about time except for us, said a Lebanese Army officer
on the team. We have to check our borders properly.
The team began its task on Monday with an inspection of Boundary Pillar 19 near
Yaroun in Bint Jbeil. However, the threat of landmines in the area forced the
team to postpone checking the precise location of No. 19 until the area had been
cleared by Lebanese Army engineers.
The presence of minefields along the border has added to the delay in verifying
the "Israeli" withdrawal. Army engineers have been accompanying the
verification team since the operation began last week. An ambulance is also
included in the 11-vehicle convoy.
By early afternoon, the team had reached a border crossing between Aitaroun and
Blida beside Boundary Pillar 26.
A group of armed and uniformed Hizbullah fighters stood guard beside the
shattered remains of an "Israeli" position which was dynamited by the
resistance last week. The fighters were keeping an eye on a newly constructed
"Israeli" outpost its observation towers strewn with camouflage
nets just 200 meters away on the other side of the border.
Out came the GPS (global positioning system) handsets, a navigation tool that
uses satellites to pinpoint a location anywhere on Earth. These would ascertain
the coordinates of boundary pillars that could be viewed, but not reached on
foot.
Calculations also had to be made to correlate the two different systems used by
the United States and France, upon which the accuracy of UN maps and Lebanese
Army maps, respectively, are based.
The teams verification efforts soon attracted a swarm of local reporters.
One of the team suggested discussing a query over the location of Boundary
Pillar 19 near Yaroun.
Lets talk about 19 later, away from the journalists, Sreenan said
through gritted teeth as the reporters continued to film, photograph, and
eavesdrop on the team.
Sometimes we have minor disagreements over the measurements, admitted the
Lebanese Army officer. But if there is a disagreement, we continue to discuss
it until were all agreed. Its generally just a matter of a few meters.
But there are no disagreements over Boundary Pillar 26 and the team swiftly
moves on to No. 27.
Thence it follows a straight line to cairn 27, situated 700 meters west
northwest of the village of Kades, near the large tree of Khorbet Menafir,
reads the quaint 77-year old description which accompanied the map charting the
1923 Anglo-French border.
The large tree no longer exists. Instead, the team was afforded a stunning
view of woods, olive groves and wheatfields in Galilee and the sepia-colored
slopes of the Golan Heights rising gently through the heat haze to the east.
Boundary Pillar 27 was out of sight from where the dusty track terminated in a
small wadi. The marker was located above the wadi. The UN delegation had already
satisfied itself that there were no "Israeli" troops on the Lebanese
side of the border at this point and were ready to move on.
But Hoteit wanted to see the border marker and suggested marching up the side of
the wadi.
Ask him if he knows the land-mine situation here, Sreenan said.
Theres an old incursion and a former outpost up there, replied a Danish
OGL officer, gazing up at the bleak, grassy slope. Im not going up
there, he added emphatically.
Neither am I, muttered an OGL officer from New Zealand.
The mine-clearing squad was called in to clear a path up the side of the wadi as
the team departed to Boundary Pillar 28, planning to return to 27 later.
I think this operation will take a few days yet before its over,
Sreenan said as he stared into the distance.
Hoteit grinned broadly when asked how much longer he believed the task of
verifying the border would take.
It will take, he said, as long as it takes.
Civilian injured by mine in southern Lebanon
(3)
" A teenage youth had to have his leg amputated
Monday after being injured by a mine in the former "Israeli"-occupied
zone of southern Lebanon, Lebanese police said.
The incident brought the toll of civilian casualties
from mine explosions to three dead and 11 injured since the "Israeli"
pullback on May 24.
Walid Awaid al-Mohammed, 17, was injured in the
village of Ain Arab, near the border with "Israel".
No mine-clearing operations had been carried out
before hundreds of thousands of civilians poured into the area, which had been
barred to them for 22 years.
UN experts arrived in Lebanon on May 31 to draw up a
mine clearance plan with the Lebanese Army.
The "Israeli" army handed over to the UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) a map showing the mines it had laid in
southern Lebanon in several sectors of the occupied zone.
Occupation's air violations and soil theft
continue
(4)
The Zionist warplanes violated the Lebanese
airspace for the third time since the retreat of the "Israeli"
occupation forces from Lebanon on May 24.
Three
enemy warplanes on Monday flew over the western range of Lebanon's Mountains in
Beqaa breaking the sound barrier.
Meanwhile,
the occupation's bulldozers proceeded with stealing soil from Lebanese
territories.
Al-Manar
Television's cameras on Monday monitored the theft from the Kfar Kila outskirts
that are still under "Israeli" occupation.
The
enemy's trucks moved the stolen soil to the Mtulla colony where it will be used
in fields near the border.
Grave of fighters believed killed by
"Israeli" forces found in southern Lebanon
(5)
"A grave containing the bones of around 15
youths believed killed in fighting when "Israeli" forces invaded
Lebanon in 1978 was discovered near this village in the former
"Israeli"-occupied zone, police said.
But one woman, who said she lived in the area at the
time, said it was commonly believed then that 28 people were actually killed.
The 35-year-old woman said most of those killed were
taking cover in a house that "Israeli" tanks shelled over the course
of several hours, ultimately destroying it.
Police said a pathologist who examined the bones said
they undoubtedly belonged to young people and that many of the bones had been
broken.
The discovery was made during work to widen a road in
the area.
Residents of nearby villages said those killed
belonged to the Lebanese Communist Action Organization or to the Fatah student
battalion of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, most of them Lebanese university
students.
Footnotes:
1-
Manar TV, 12-6-2000.
2-
The Daily Star, 13-6-2000.
3-
AFP, 12-6-2000.
4-
Manar TV, 12-6-2000.
5- AFP, 12-6-2000.