Indian peacekeepers take position along Lebanon border

JERUSALEM, JULY 30. After showing valour in Sierra Leone, 50 Indian peacekeepers today took positions along the Lebanese- Israeli border in a zone formerly occupied by Israel.

On the Al-Labboune Hill close to Nagoura on the Lebanese border, the soldiers hoisted the U.N. flag and set up four tents after the Lebanese Government gave the green signal for deploying more of the international force.

The Indian soldiers, who form part of peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), erected road blockades to keep a cattleherder and his flock from following them.

``This is an historic moment for UNIFIL, which after 22 years in the field in south Lebanon is now finally beginning to fulfill its original mandate,'' the force's spokesman, Mr. Daljeet Bagga, was quoted as saying.

About 5,000 UNIFIL peacekeepers are stationed in areas further north from the border in southern Lebanon since the 1978 Israeli invasion.

They have been waiting to move to the border region in line with U.N. resolutions after Israeli troops ended their occupation of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon in May.

On Saturday, a U.N. statement said the President, Mr. Emile Lahoud, authorised deployment of the U.N. force in four locations along the border. On Friday, Irish and Ghanaian peacekeepers took over two border hills at Manara and Yaroun that have been the site of recent Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.

- PTI

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