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July 27, 2006
UN military observers killed
It is very sad that 4 UN military observers were killed in Lebanon. Canadian, Maj. von Kruedener was a great soldier. The question is: whom to blame?
Mr.Annan was quick to blame IDF, saying that the hit was "apparently deliberate". Later he backed off, and explained that he said "apparently deliberate" rather than "deliberate". Well, Mr.Annan is "apparently incompetent".
According to UN oficials they called 6 times to IDF liason officers demanding them to stop shelling. Bad, bad IDF! Instead of shelling Hezballah, they were shelling UNIFL observation post. Or may be they were shelling Hezballah? According to email sent by Maj. von Kruedener prior his death, some projectiles were falling very close to the post but he believed that "this was a tactical neccessity" which means that Hezballah was operating in the very proximity.
It is very likely: Hezballah MO is to use human shields, civilians or UNIFL personal. Let's remember Qana when they were operating from the vicinity of UNIFL compound and IDF shell killed 106 civilians who took refuge there.
In this case demands of UNIFL to stop shelling were completely of no merits. IDF had right to attack enemy even if there was Mr. Annan himself. Instead they were supposed to demand that Hezballah moved away. Since it was not likely that Hezballah would comply, and since they have no firepower to enforce this request, UNIFL was supposed to evacuate the outpost moving observers out of the harm way.
This is an opinion of Canadian PM S.Harper: he rightly does not believe that the hit was deliberate and questioned why observers were not removed. Let us notice that the area is a responsibility of the Indian unit. Let us remind that the previous assault of Hezballah to IDF took place when the soldiers of this or another Indian unit were watching but they had not interfered (Hezballah was using UNIFL marked or may be even genuine UNIFL jeep) and were extremely uncooperative in investigation; the soldiers involved were promptly sent back to India.
My opinion is that the parties guilty in this incident are Hezballah and the commanders of UNIFL. I hope that the investigation will be able to uncover the truth despite the usual UN cover-up. Then Canadian government should request court-marshalling those who are guilty with all the legal consequences.
Posted by Victor at July 27, 2006 08:02 AM