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| 5/24 |
| 2006/7/26-28 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Others] UID:43806 Activity:nil |
7/26 http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/26/mideast.observers/index.html "The timeline provided CNN by a U.N. officer in Lebanon showed the first bomb exploded about 200 yards from the U.N. outpost at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, prompting the first call ... with the Israeli military. The officer said they were assured by the Israeli liaison that he would stop the attacks. A series of about nine more bombs hit within 100 to 400 yards from the observers over the next several hours, with a call to the Israeli military following each explosion. The U.N. base at Noqoura lost contact with the outpost at 7:40 p.m., apparently the time of the direct hit, the officer said." http://tinyurl.com/r8zww (Wash Post) Senior Irish officer in UN observation force (not in the destroyed bunker) said to have made six phone calls in hours before. Ireland files official protest with Israel. "He warned the Israelis that they were shelling in very close proximity to the post, and his warnings were very specific, explicit, detailed and stark. Obviously those warnings went unheeded." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/world/26cnd-nations.html UN official says no Hezbollah firing was taking place in the area around the observation post in the six hours of phone calls and air/artillery strikes. \_ why are UN soldiers within 100 yrds of hezbolla targets? \_ it's my understanding Israel told the UN it wouldn't touch the UN observation posts \_ good try. UN Observation post has been there forever. \_ shielding hezbollah targets 100 yards away forever? \_ i am just saying that observation post has been there for a long long time and Israel is fully aware of its position. the fact that this post was destroyed by an coordinated artiley shelling and ariel bombing, it is quite obvious that this incident is anything but "accidental." \_ Israel didn't say it was an accident. They said "we're sorry we killed the UN guys". If the UN stopped shielding terrorists, UN guys would stop dying. You're aware that the pullout agreement 6 years ago said the UN was supposed to disarm Hezbollah, not watch them build up a bigger military stock pile than ever before. Where was the UN report on the last six years' of buildup? These guys are obsevers, so what were the observing and what'd they do about what they observed? This is the fault of the UN for putting those guys there to die. It was inevitable given the situation the UN created. \_ Sounds like an excerpt from the "Demons and Angels" Red Dwarf: "The poor wretch. He has a faulty gun. He has accidentally shot me five times. Oh, how I love him!" \_ I've been saying that Israeli has a history of attacking UN facilities in the past. All of them supposely "accidental." Does make you wonders... \_ Got a list of dates and events? \_ This is how IDF "do their best they can" to avoid civilian/UN casualties. The reality is, they just do whatever they want and they know US will back them. \_ No, it is a message to the UN: Stop shielding terrorists and your people won't get killed. Not that Khofi gives a damn about a few random guys on the ground. \_ One of the UN observer is a Chinese. Chinese embassy has send a very strong protest to Israel. Such protest is probably going to be ignored completely and IDF is probably going to be 'business as usual.' \_ As if. The Chinese want Israeli weapons and couldn't care less about one dead guy. \_ much of Israel/Chinese weapon program has been suspended by USA. secondly, remember the Hezbollah missile that hit Israeli warship? that is a Chinese design. Chinese has a significant weapon market share in the Middle East and they can REALLY stir up the pot if they choose to. \_ That's funny, the UNIFIL says Hezbollah was firing from that position. http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilpress.htm http://tinyurl.com/s6bdr (Herald Sun) \_ Israel has no right to shell and bomb UN site for any reason, even if Hezbollah was firing *FROM* that position. Then again, Israel is no friend of UN for the past 50+ years. \_ Wow, that's really nutty. So why would the UN allow Hezbollah to fire at Israel from a UN site? And Israel is supposed to just let it happen? That would have been a much better troll if you were less black'n'white nutty about it. \_ 1. these observers are unarmed. 2. it's not at UN's interest for Hezbollah to fire from UN observation post 3. UN observation post is by no mean a safe heavan for Hezbollah. 4. Israel has been repeatly warned UN in the past that UN observer tend to be more sympathic to Palistanian and Lebonese... so you figures. \_ 1) so what? 2) sure it is 3) it isnt *now*, it was 4) uh... what? Yes we know the UN is biased against Israel. And? |
| 5/24 |
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| www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/26/mideast.observers/index.html BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The UN observers killed when an Israeli bomb hit their bunker in Lebanon Tuesday called an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that aerial attacks were getting close to their position, a UN officer said. After each call, the Israeli officer promised to have the bombing stopped, an officer at the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) base in Noqoura said. Finally, an Israeli bomb exploded directly on the UN post near Khiyam, killing four UN observers from Austria, Finland, Canada and China, the UN officer said. As of Wednesday morning, three of the four bodies had been recovered from the rubble, an officer at the UNIFIL base in Noqoura said. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the incident would be "thoroughly investigated" and that the Israeli military had taken measures since the start of its bombardment of southern Lebanon to protect the UN observers there. "Israel would never deliberately target UN personnel," Mark Regev said. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and "expressed his regret at this tragedy in Lebanon." Annan issued a sharply worded statement Tuesday evening which said he was "shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting ... He called on Israel to conduct "a full investigation into this very disturbing incident." "This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," Annan said. "Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the UN force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack." The timeline provided CNN by a UN officer in Lebanon showed the first bomb exploded about 200 yards from the UN outpost at 1:20 pm Tuesday, prompting the first call by the UNIFIL observers to their designated contact with the Israeli military. The officer said they were assured by the Israeli liaison that he would stop the attacks. A series of about nine more bombs hit within 100 to 400 yards from the observers over the next several hours, with a call to the Israeli military following each explosion. The UN base at Noqoura lost contact with the outpost at 7:40 pm, apparently the time of the direct hit, the officer said. China issued a strong condemnation of the Israeli airstrike, according to a statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry Web site Wednesday. "China urges the concerned sides, especially Israel, to take tangible measures to ensure the security of UN peacekeepers," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. China's state-run news agency -- Xinhau -- said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun called in Israeli Ambassador Yehoyada Haim Wednesday morning to discuss the attack. "China strongly condemns the activity to raid the UN peacekeeping post and urge Israel to carry out thorough investigation and apologize to China and the victim's families and coordinate with China to deal with the aftermath," Xinhau quoted Zhao as telling the Israeli ambassador. Journalist Anthony Mills in Beruit contributed to this report. |
| tinyurl.com/r8zww -> www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072600507.html Manage Your Newsletters JavaScript is required to display this interactive graphic. If it is turned off, please enable JavaScript in your browser preferences. Olmert: 'Deep Regret' Over Peacekeepers By ARON HELLER The Associated Press Wednesday, July 26, 2006; Ireland filed an official protest with Israel alleging that its senior UN observer in Lebanon made six telephoned warnings about Israeli shelling near a UN border outpost hours before the strike. The observers were killed by an Israeli bomb that destroyed the outpost in Lebanon on Tuesday night. A Chinese UN soldier is seen during an operation to clear the rubble from a destroyed building that was attacked by Israeli warplane missiles last week, in a search for the bodies of missing persons in the southern coastal Lebanon city of Tyre, Wednesday, July 26, 2006. China on Wednesday demanded that Israel apologize for an attack in Lebanon that killed a Chinese UN observer as President Hu Jintao offered his condolences. China on Wednesday demanded that Israel apologize for an attack in Lebanon that killed a Chinese UN observer as President Hu Jintao offered his condolences. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Annan in a phone call Wednesday that the UN post was hit inadvertently. "The prime minister expressed Israel's deep regret over the mistaken killing of four UN peacekeepers," Olmert said in a statement released by his office. "The prime minister said he has instructed the military to carry out a thorough investigation and that the results will be shared with the UN secretary general." China demanded that Israel apologize for the attack, which killed a Chinese UN observer along with observers from Austria, Canada and Finland. "We are deeply shocked by this incident and strongly condemn it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on the ministry Web site. His statement said Israel's ambassador to Beijing was summoned Wednesday morning and asked to convey a request that Israel issue an apology to China and the victims' families. "These so-called precision attacks seem to be mainly targeting everyone else except the Hezbollah," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, who added that the attack would increase pressure for a cease-fire. Austria's foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, told her Israeli counterpart by telephone that the bombing was unacceptable and urged Israel to stop its attack on the area, according to a ministry statement. The European Union joined China and other nations in demanding an Israeli investigation of the attack. Olmert expressed dismay over Annan's initial comments in a written statement that the airstrike was "apparently deliberate." "It's inconceivable for the UN to define an error as an apparently deliberate action," Olmert said. Annan said the "coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire." Alain Pelligrini, the UN force commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers Tuesday "stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack." John Molloy, the senior Irish officer in the UN observer force in south Lebanon, reported making six telephone calls to his Israeli counterparts in the hours before the deadly strike on the border outpost, said Suzanne Coogan, spokeswoman for Irish Defense Minister Willie O'Dea. She said all six calls specifically identified the UN post that was ultimately destroyed. "He warned the Israelis that they were shelling in very close proximity to the post, and his warnings were very specific, explicit, detailed and stark. Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, there have been several dozen incidents of firing close to UN peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly, a UN official said. As a result of these attacks, 12 UN personnel have been killed or injured, UN officials said. Tuesday's bomb hit the building and shelter of the observer post in Khiam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL. The four observers were in a bunker that collapsed in the bombing, a UN official said. Israeli forces kept firing as rescue workers tried to clear the rubble, Struger said. During an Israeli offensive against Lebanon in 1996, artillery blasted a UN base at Qana in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 civilians taking refuge with the peacekeepers. The UN mission, which has nearly 2,000 military personnel and more than 300 civilians, is to patrol the border line, known as the Blue Line, drawn by the United Nations after Israel withdrew troops from south Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. On Wednesday, dovish lawmaker Ran Cohen, a colonel in the Israeli army reserves, said that from his experience in Lebanon it was quite possible to make such a mistake. "I have not even the slightest doubt that we're talking here about a mistake, technical or otherwise. The army, as long as I've known it and I'm fairly critical, never wants to hit UNIFIL forces," Cohen said. |
| www.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/world/26cnd-nations.html UNITED NATIONS, July 26 The United Nations said today that its top officials in New York and its officers on the ground in Lebanon made repeated calls Tuesday to the Israeli mission and the Israeli military protesting repeated firing on its outpost in Lebanon where as many as four peacekeepers ended up being killed. Jane Lute, the assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that over the six-hour period in which the warnings were being conveyed to the Israelis, the patrol base at Khiam in southern Lebanon continued to come under fire, subjected to a total of 21 strikes from the air, 12 of them artillery rounds. Hezbollah firing was taking place in the area during the period. Ms Lute said the United Nations was so alarmed by the incidents that she enlisted Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy secretary general, to join her in placing the calls. When the United Nations force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, reported losing contact with the outpost, it secured safe passage from Israel to send in Indian troops, who found the shelter collapsed and the remains of three of the four peacekeepers. Firing continued during the rescue operation despite repeated requests to the IDF for an abatement, she said, speaking of the Israeli Defense Forces. She said that UNIFIL had reported 145 incidents of close firings with several positions taking direct hits and sustaining damage to buildings, equipment and vehicles. Kofi Annan, who in a statement Tuesday night issued in Rome had called the attacks apparently deliberate, now accepted the Israeli governments assurance that they were not. She said the United Nations welcomed Israels promise to conduct an immediate investigation. Security Council members said they hoped to issue a formal statement by the end of the day. They initially dropped language submitted by China calling the strikes apparently deliberate and said they would negotiate the rest through the day. The four soldiers are from China, Finland, Canada and Austria. The working draft of the statement criticizes Israel for firing on a long established and clearly marked UN post despite its assurances that UN positions would be spared by the Israeli fire. The draft also demands that all attacks on United Nations positions and personnel stop and all parties refrain from making any attacks targeting UN peacekeepers. John R Bolton, the United States ambassador, warned that the statement should not be exploited by those countries seeking an immediate end to hostilities. We should not make this statement a back door way of getting into a cease-fire or other larger political and military questions, he said. It is a tragedy, there is no question about it, he said. We are pleased that the government of Israel will conduct an immediate investigation. They have described the incident as one that was an operational mistake, Mr Bolton said. The government of Israel has definitively said they were not deliberating targeting the UNIFIL outpost. We certainly take them at their word and noted that there is no evidence to the contrary. Vitaly V Churkin, the ambassador of Russia, said the initial reaction of the United Nations was understandable under the circumstances. I think I can sympathize very strongly with the people in the secretariat who were trying for hours to prevent the tragic consequences of the shelling, and I can easily understand their feelings when they realized that the people they were trying to help for a very long time, for hours, were killed, he said. I am certainly not blaming the secretariat, He said, One would expect to see more respect for peacekeepers if one wants to rely on them in the future. The Security Council is currently considering the renewal of the mandate of UNIFIL, which ends July 31. France, which is the president of the council this month, has suggested a one month rollover to give time for planning the expanded new force that many countries are calling for in order to stabilize Lebanon. |
| www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/unifilpress.htm UNIFIL - UN Documents United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon UNIFIL - Home Background Mandate Facts & Figures UN Documents Map (PDF) Press Releases 2006 Press release 27 July 2006 Press release 26 July 2006 Press release 25 July 2006 Press release 24 July 2006 Press release 23 July 2006 Press release 22 July 2006 Press release 21 July 2006 Press release 20 July 2006 Press release 19 July 2006 Press release 18 July 2006 Press release 17July 2006 Maintained by the Peace and Security Section of the Department of Public Information in cooperation with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. |
| tinyurl.com/s6bdr -> blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/why_the_un_post_was_bombed/ apparently deliberate targetting" of a UN observation post, killing four observers. Do these people seriously think Israel aims to kill UN staff, and that this was not simply - as Israel insists - a tragic mistake? What makes Annan's allegation so unforgiveable is that his UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been warning for days about what almost certainly caused this tragedy. Hezbollah fighters, who have already been firing behind screens of women and children, have also been shooting from behind and next to the UN positions, presumably hoping Israel will not dare shoot back and risk exactly this kind of propaganda disaster. Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them . Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July: Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire). Can the jeering critics of Israel stop catcalling for a minute and explain how Israel is to defend itself against an enemy that shoots from among women and children, and from behind UN soldiers? Can they explain why they are such apologists for terrorists? Can Annan explain why he did not call on Hezbollah to stop risking the lives of his staff, or pull them out when they were being used to screen terrorist fighters? Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie says he recently received emails from the Canadian peacekeeper killed at the UN post who'd told him that Hezbollah was using his post as cover. We received emails from him a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that's a favorite trick by people who don't have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it. makes sense: Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said an Israeli attack on a UN outpost that killed four, including a Canadian, was a "terrible tragedy" but not likely deliberate. At the same time, he questioned why the UN had manned the outpost in Lebanon near the Israeli border as bombs exploded all around. "We want to find out why this United Nations post was attacked and also why it remained manned during what is now, more or less, a war during obvious danger to these individuals," he told reporters. UPDATE 3: Hezbollah is listed here and in the US and Canada as a terrorist group. I guess the paper at least "balanced" it by running alongside it a piece by an Israeli minister. Can someone older than I tell me if it was the habit of The Age in World War 2 to run pieces by Mr Hitler alongside ones by some Jewish spokesman not yet dead for the sake of a "balanced" argument? We can't be far from the day that The Age hires Mr Osama bin Laden as a columnist. Last >> Icon Arrow Posted by chrisse of Melbourne on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:03am: Andrew, can I just say thank you. There are many people who can see just what is going on here, but we are not a group, we are all over the place. A weblog that I would recommend for people is Little Green Footballs. It's an American site, but Charles Johnson who runs it is always interested in stories across the globe. Can be difficult to register so you can comment, but is still a good source of information. While you were sending me this, I was updating my post with exactly the same link. Posted by Hilly of buderim on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:07am: I reckon that subconsciously some are getting worried that the crazies over there will get crazier and it's clouding their thinking. There still remains only one way for Israel to defend itself against recognised Terrorists who abide by no rules or agreements and that's the method being used now. Posted by Grant of Brisbane on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:21am: Your support of Israel is no doubt admirable, your accusations of anti-Semitism in the media very questionable but at least thought provoking. So this raises some questions that I would appreciate your (and any of your readers) opinions on: 1 Do you feel any sympathy for Lebanese civilians at all? I cannot recall reading anythign akin to this in any of your related posts, so am interested to know. Posted by Tracey Conlan on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:22am: 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers for the lives of 4 innocent UN observers. Posted by chrisse of Melbourne on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:39am: Tracey Conlan 10:22 why don't you go over and ask the Hezb'Allah terrorists who were using them as human shields? Posted by Barry Bones on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:41am: Grant of Brisbane - Be prepared for the usual anti-semtic abuse. Posted by chrisse of Melbourne on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:47am: 1 Do you feel any sympathy for Lebanese civilians at all? I cannot recall reading anythign akin to this in any of your related posts, so am interested to know. Answer: Yes I do, but feel that the Lebanese Government, Iran and Syria are to blame for the failure to meet the conditions of UN Resolution 1559. Answer: When a resolution is found that gives Israel true peace. By the way, you don't want to know how this female would do that. Answer: All nations should be subject to scrutiny of their actions. However, a nation can be held accountable, terrorists can not. Actions have been committed in Israels name that are morally or ethically questionable, eg Jenin, but Israel has addressed these themselves. Answer: That attitude is appeasement, been tried unsuccessfully since the 1920s, and still the terrorists grew. Gaza and West Bank are doing a great job of developing terrorists from childhood on their own. Posted by Hilly of buderim on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:51am: Not really that simple Tracey. Hezbollah has been amassing a large arsenal of rockets and other arms supplied by Iran and Syria right on the border with Israel and right under the nose of UN observers. This allowed this recognised Terrorist group to become emboldened enough to start crossing the border kidnapping Israel soldiers and attacking other targets. Hezbollah knew at some point it would trigger this response and is now trying to convince you that's it's all over 2 soldiers ... Posted by Alex on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 10:58am: Kofi Annan is and has always been a disgraced man whom words aren't taken seriously by anyone anymore. So let him squeek and scream because nobody gives a damn about him. It has been reiterated again and again (and obviously the Left are oblivious to this fact), that Hezbollah is using civilians as human shields knowing they wouldn't be targeted. then are those who are not American Indians not American or not Aboriginal not Australian? I'm interested to know, how many countries in the world still have the ancestors of the people who first set foot on their lands living/occupying their countries? Posted by Mick Stone on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 11:10am: Thanks Andrew for bringing a small light of sanity to what seems to be "open season" on Israel for having the temerity of trying to survive. As to Grant of Brisbane, yes the civilians dying is heartbreaking in the extreme, but if we are determined to lay blame, then let it be with the terrorists who kill Israeli civilians, whilst hiding behind Lebanese ones ... and derive great joy from the PR value of every dismembered Lebanese child. If we look to a solution, then that too lies in eradicating a cancer that will settle for nothing less than the total anihilation of Israel, even if that means fighting to the last Lebanese civilian. A satisfactory time for Israel to cease hostilities will be when either the Lebanese army, or the international community, can guarantee the safety of Israeli citizens. Israeli scouts hike across it overnight for one of their badges. Even Hizbollah's short range missiles (40kg explosives) cover all of northern Israel, their long range (600 kg explosives) threaten the bulk of Israel's population. Hizbollah, with even cruise missiles, is better equipped than most nations. Posted by Milly of Greensborough on Thu 27 Jul 06 at 11:13am: LittleGreen Footballs, what a load of crap, I bet th... |