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[gowhar fazli]

Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'
Canadian wrote of militia's presence, 'necessity' of
bombing  
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  Font: * * * *  Joel Kom, with files from Steven
Edwards, CanWest News Service, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, July 27, 2006 
The words of a Canadian United Nations observer
written just days before he was killed in an Israeli
bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah
was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into
Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.

Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days
ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post
-- which according to UN officials was clearly marked
and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on
Tuesday night, said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie
yesterday.

The strike hit the UN observation post in the southern
Lebanese village of El Khiam, killing Canadian Maj.
Paeta Hess-von Kruedener and three others serving as
unarmed UN military observers in the area.

Just last week, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener wrote an
e-mail about his experiences after nine months in the
area, words Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie said are an obvious
allusion to Hezbollah tactics.

"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail
to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis had
numerous occasions where our position has come under
direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery
and aerial bombing.

"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters
(sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial
bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base.
This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due
to tactical necessity."

Those words, particularly the last sentence, are
not-so-veiled language indicating Israeli strikes were
aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, said
Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got
Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions,
taking our positions here and then using us for
shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence
Forces)," he said.

That would mean Hezbollah was purposely setting up
near the UN post, he added. It's a tactic Maj.-Gen.
MacKenzie, who was the first UN commander in Sarajevo
during the Bosnia civil war, said he's seen in past
international missions: Aside from UN posts, fighters
would set up near hospitals, mosques and orphanages.

A Canadian Forces infantry officer with the
Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light
Infantry and the only Canadian serving as a UN
military observer in Lebanon, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener
was no stranger to fighting nearby.

The UN post, he wrote in the e-mail, afforded a view
of the "Hezbollah static positions in and around our
patrol Base."

"It appears that the lion's share of fighting between
the IDF and Hezbollah has taken place in our area," he
wrote, noting later it was too dangerous to venture
out on patrols.

The e-mail appears to contradict the UN's claim there
had been no Hezbollah activity in the vicinity of the
strike.

The question of Hezbollah's infiltration of the area
is significant because UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan, speaking Tuesday just hours after the bombing,
accused the Israelis of the "apparently deliberate
targeting" of the base near Khiam in southern Lebanon.

A senior UN official, asked about the information
contained in Maj. Hess-von Kruedener's e-mail
concerning Hezbollah presence in the vicinity of the
Khiam base, denied the world body had been caught in a
contradiction.


Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.   
      
Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. 

Peter Ustinov

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