Finding Fault
Fascinating; a Canadian military enquiry has concluded that the deaths of UN peacekeepers during the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon was preventable. The enquiry lays the blame directly upon the Israeli military. The enquiry actually sought specifically to find answers in the death of Major Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian engaged in UN peacekeeping activities. He and three other UNIFIL personnel died in an IDF raid that bombed their post.The UN post, Patrol Base Khiam in south Lebanon, was located close to the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian borders. Precisely where the heat of the battle raged. And from where, just incidentally, Hezbollah terrorists had been lobbing explosive devices against the IDF forces deployed within the Lebanese border to oust Hezbollah after that terror group launched an offensive against an Israeli base close to the border of Lebanon, killing several Israeli soldiers, kidnapping two others.
The usual provocative tactics of Hezbollah; to launch rockets at the defensive army of Israel, stationing themselves and sheltering their activities amidst civilian enclaves, then rapidly dispersing, knowing full well that answering fire would target the area they had just vacated. Lt.Gen. Michel Gauthier, commander, Canadian Expeditionary Force Command, expressed support for the board's conclusion that no blame be assigned to any one individual.
The facts were simple enough: The Israel Defence Force authorities were informed repeatedly that they were firing close to the UN building. And despite being informed, bombs landed beside the base, along with artillery rounds. Before the UN personnel could be evacuated - planned for the following morning - the base was finally fatally bombed and the four men killed.
Of course the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon had been warned of the situation, too. They could have, and should have, pulled those men out of harm's way long before the situation had reached that degree of danger.
This UN force was seen as being entirely neutral, there as observers only. During that nasty little summertime war, however, UNIFIL posted on its website, easily accessible to anyone, pin-point information with respect to IDF soldier movements, their weaponry and materiel. Priceless data for Hezbollah.
So up-to-date and precise was that information that it included IDF safety structure placements as soon as they were built. Data only a half-hour's real-time away was posted. Whereas, puzzlingly, not one piece of specific intelligence with respect to the forces of Hezbollah was posted. All such Hezbollah-related data was approximate and non-specific. Beyond peculiar behaviour for a neutral body of observers.
And, as some analysts concluded, some of those UNIFIL postings "could have exposed Israeli soldiers to grave danger". The observation was also made at the time that similar intelligence reflecting data-deleterious postings about Hezbollah was simply not provided. Needless to say, this might not have exactly endeared UNIFIL and their representative observers to members of the Israeli Defence Force.
Moreover, according to an email sent by Major Paeta Hess-Von Kruendener to his former Canadian commander, the Major mentioned that Hezbollah fighters were "running around" close to the UN post in question, and that he had observed that Hezbollah was using the UN post as a "shield" against Israeli strikes.
Major-General Lewis MacKenzie, formerly UN commander in Bosnia, mentioned that very email during a radio interview. Major-General MacKenzie claimed that Hess-Von Kruendener had written that the IDF strikes near the post had "Not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."
"That would mean Hezbollah was purposely setting up near the UN post", said Lewis MacKenzie: "It's a tactic." It was also reported at the time that Hess-Von Kruendener had forwarded an email to the Canadian television network CTV, only days before his death, which mentioned the IDF's bombings close to the UN post, saying he feared for his life.
So, why weren't the UNIFIL personnel expeditiously taken out of harm's way? And given the information that was distributed at the time of the event, how is it possible that only the IDF is given the black eye of responsibility for the untimely deaths of these men?
Quite aside from what appears more or less obvious: That this might very well have represented a grudge hit, payback for UN ineptitude, for UNIFIL assistance to Hezbollah. Deadly spite unleashed.
Labels: Israel, That's Life, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Saturday, February 02, 2008
<< Home