KIDNAP TAPE - UN officials passing blame

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

Haaretz

UN officials passing the blame over tape

By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent

The growing saga surrounding the UN's videotape of the kidnapping of three Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the northern border last October has led to UN officials passing the buck over who is to blame for covering up information about the tape and why.

UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Terje Larsen even considered resigning when it emerged that he was misled and consequently misled the Israeli government over the tape. Larsen traveled to New York on Friday for talks at UN headquarters, deciding to stay on in his position when it became clear to him that even UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had not known that his people were in possession of such a tape.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, announced on Friday that Larsen and the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Southern Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, had had no part in checking the tape and had not even known of its existence.

Guehenno is responsible for the UNIFIL force in South Lebanon and his men caught the Hezbollah operatives on tape. The chain of command involved in dealing with the tape begins with the Indian soldiers deployed on the Israel-Lebanon border and goes all the way up to Guehenno's office. Guehenno never reported the existence of the tape to his superior, Annan.

De Mistura, Annan's man in Lebanon, learned of the tape's existence a short time after the soldiers were kidnapped from the Har Dov area in October 2000. He formally wrote to the then UNIFIL commander, Ghanaian Seth Kofi Obeng, asking him to hand over the tape. Obeng's reply did not come quickly and when he did respond, he vehemently denied the existence of the tape. Obeng has since finished his stint as UNIFIL commander and is now Chief of Staff of the Ghanaian army.

Guehenno paid an official visit to his forces and the governments hosting them in the Middle East on May 28-29. He was accompanied by Larsen during his meeting with Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. During the meeting, the Israelis asked about the existence of the videotape. Guehenno contended that two internal investigations carried out by the UN had revealed that the tape did not exist, adding, however, that he was prepared to carry out a third inquiry.

At Ben-Eliezer's request, Guehenno met the following day with a senior Military Intelligence official in charge of hostages and MIAs who once again raised the issue of the videotape. Guehenno again denied that such a tape existed, but said that he would conduct another investigation because of Israel's persistence.

One month later, on June 28, the defense minister met with Larsen and de Mistura. The head of the IDF's Northern Command, Gabi Ashkenazi, who was also in attendance, said, "I know the tape exists." Larsen said that it was an insult to the UN secretary-general that he would hide such a thing. But Ashkenazi would not give up. At the end of the meeting, he took Larsen aside and warned him that he was having the wool pulled over his eyes.

Larsen thus decided to check again with the general staff back in New York. To his surprise, he found that the tape did indeed exist. He immediately called Ben-Eliezer and apologized.

UN officials have been prohibited from responding to the incident and the UN spokesman's office said that it would not respond to reporters' questions before tomorrow.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ