Indian Army caught in tussle

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (Bahrain), AUG. 5. The Indian Army contingent of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been made the scapegoat in a long- standing tussle between Israel and the UNIFIL. The campaign got murkier when the military editor of the usually- respectable Haaretz ``cooked'' up a slanderous report on the conduct of the Indian Army battalion.

Mr. Zeev Schiff, military editor of Haaretz, in a report today, repeated the slander that has been bouncing around in the Israel media that an Indian Army unit in October last could have, but deliberately did not, prevent the abduction of three Israeli soldiers by the Hizbollah. He repeated the IDF's pusillanimous line that they had information that two officers of the Indian unit had been ``bribed'' to look the other way but had not taken up the issue (and that is very magnanimous of them in the circumstances) because they did not have confirmation.

This canard is being repeatedly given play without any of the Israeli writers, who have taken note of the issue, having the integrity to advert to the fact that the Hizbollah need not bribe the UNIFIL soldiers because the latter could do nothing to block the Hizbollah. The UNIFIL's mandate only permits it to report on violations of the Israel/Lebanon border from either side. Even if the UNIFIL men had reason to believe that the Hizbollah was planning an attack, they could do nothing but report the information to their headquarters. They are not permitted to inform the intended victims about a possible attack.

Israel's complaint is that the UNIFIL did not give it prior warning about the Hizbollah's plan to abduct the soldiers. Were the UNIFIL to pass on this information, the U.N. forces would have been accused of acting as intelligence agents for the other side. It is exactly akin to what happens whenever Israel military aircraft violate Lebanese air space. The UNIFIL men who are on the border, and therefore the first to spot the contrails rising from inside Israel, can do nothing to warn the Lebanese authorities that an Israeli military over-flight is about to take place. All that the UNIFIL units could do is report to their headquarters about the flights.

Israel's campaign against the UNIFIL flows from two causes. First, it is fed up with the state of insecurity on a part of its northern borders. The Lebanese army has not been deployed there after Israel withdrew last year, and the Hizbollah, which continues to attack Israel in this sector, has filled the vacuum. Israel wants some force to act as a buffer between it and the Hizbollah and since there is no sign that the Lebanese army is about to do it, the UNIFIL is made the target. The UNIFIL's mandate was recently changed so that it could play only a still more marginal role. By slandering the U.N., Israel hopes, the world body would persuade Lebanon to deploy its troops on the border.

The second reason is that Israel is currently fighting a joint U.S./European Union proposal for posting third party observers on the lines between it and the Palestinians. By discrediting one set of international observers, and that is all the UNIFIL is, it could make those proposing the deployment of neutral observers on the Palestinian front think again.

It is India's problem when one of its infantry units is being singled out for slander. The Indian Army has to demand its due respect. A senior officer claimed that only a few Israeli journalists had levelled this accusation. Mr. Schiff is not ordinary journalist, but is well connected to the Israel defence establishment. When he joins the game, it is very clear as to who is behind it.

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Section  : International
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