Winds of Change.NET: UNIFIL hung out to dry

July 28, 2006

UNIFIL hung out to dry

by Yehudit at July 28, 2006 2:46 PM

I speculated yesterday that Kofi was setting up the UNIFIL personnel so that Israel would either avoid bombing them and have to modify the intensity of its campaign, or would end up bombing them and get an international black eye. Perhaps "set up" is too strong, but certainly their safety didn't matter to the UNSG.

An Israeli reporter visits some Ghanian UNIFIL personnel at a UN post in southern Lebanon, and confirms how hapless they are:

The small group of Ghanaian soldiers manning UNIFIL Position 6-52, to the west of the village of Maroun a-Ras, less than a kilometer from the border, hasn't left its base in the last two weeks. "Those are the orders of our superior officers," explains one of them who presents himself as commander of the post, but refuses to give his name. "We have been visited by our officers three times since the fighting began and a supply truck arrives here every three or four days."
On the wall nearest to the gate of the white-washed building is an "Alert State" board with the arrow pointed to black. But none of their information on the current situation has come from their own sources. "We know what's going on from the television," says the commander. Even the deaths of four UNTSO members on Tuesday night in an IAF bombardment, at a base not so far away, wasn't communicated to them from headquarters. That, too, they learned from TV.

The current contingent from Ghana has been in Lebanon for three months. The soldiers at the post are charged with patrolling and monitoring, with their single jeep, the area where the heaviest fighting has been going on for the last 10 days. The fact that Hizbullah has been well entrenched in the area ever since Israel's withdrawal six years ago - with hundreds of fighters, well stocked ammunition depots and extensive fortifications - seemed to have escape the Ghanaians notice. "I have never seen one of them," says the soldier. "You cannot easily identify them in the population."

The UNIFIL soldiers have "zero contact" with the Lebanese living in the surrounding towns and villages. All their supplies are brought by UNIFIL, and they never go out for recreation, aside from periods of leave in Beirut.
. . . . Hizbullah has been banished from this small part of Lebanon. IDF Merkava tanks roar through a nearby opening in the border fence. There isn't even a guard at the border and Israeli and foreign journalists pass in and out unhindered. The Ghanaian soldiers weren't even aware of the breach in the fence they are supposed to monitor, by mandate of the United Nations.

Printer-friendly Version

TrackBack URL for this entry:

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference
"UNIFIL hung out to dry"

Comments

#1 from The Unbeliever at 4:07 pm on Jul 28, 2006

The soldiers at the post are charged with patrolling and monitoring, with their single jeep, the area where the heaviest fighting has been going on for the last 10 days.

Wait a second, "patrolling" means you're actively trying to prevent an intrusion upon a designated area. The connotation is that you will take steps to prevent such an incursion once you spot it. But "monitoring" means you're just passively taking notes on whatever happens, and refusing to get involved. I don't see how you can be said to be "patrolling" when all you're doing is watching events happen.

So is this charge actually their mandate, or just their unit-level orders? Because if all they're doing is acting as scribes or note-takers, I suggest we have people who are much better suited for that task.

#2 from Tom Holsinger at 5:09 pm on Jul 28, 2006

Jim Dunnigan of Strategy Page on this issue;

The UN Takes Sides in Lebanon

July 28, 2006: The UNIFIL Observer outpost that was "accidentally" targeted by Israeli firepower on July 25th, leaving four UN troops dead, was probably a victim of its own chatter. The unarmed observers, with a clear view of the fighting between Hizbollah and the Israelis, were apparently reporting whatever they saw, with other UNIFIL locations, over unencrypted ("in the clear") radio frequencies. This chatter could be picked up by Hizbollah. Since the Israelis have control of the air, and use aircraft and UAVs to gain an information advantage over Hizbollah, this UNIFIL chatter was giving the Hizbollah fighters information they would not otherwise have. That was endangering Israeli soldiers. Then again, the UNIFIL post was right in the middle of a battlefield. There was a furious firefight going on around the UNIFIL position, and the Hizbollah gunmen were using the UNIFIL position for cover from Israeli fire (an old Hizbollah tactic.) The Israeli damage to the UN bunker may well have been accidental.

Then again, Israeli troops have complained to UNIFIL about this sort of loose talk, and inadvertent shelter for enemy troops, before, but such complaints have been brushed aside. The Israelis have caught some UNIFIL actually working for Hizbollah, and many more of the UN troops developed very friendly relations with Hizbollah. There was always a practical reason for this. When UN troops give Hizbollah a hard time, Hizbollah is not bashful about threatening the UN troops with violence. But the UNIFIL/Hizbollah cooperation goes beyond idle chatter. At about the same time the UNIFIL troops were killed, other UNIFIL troops were repairing roads in the area that had been bombed by the Israelis. UNIFIL engineers were making the repairs so UNIFIL vehicles could use the roads again, but UNIFIL was not going to do anything to keep Hizbollah off the newly repaired roads.

The UN is insistent that the Israeli bombing was deliberate. If the UN military officials put themselves in the situation the Israelis were facing, they would have probably given the same orders. That is, if the UN officers cared about their troops. UNIFIL has shown a keen sense of self-preservation during past encounters with Hizbollah. Now the UN is discovering that the Israelis will play for keeps as well. Despite what Israeli and UN diplomats (and their spin doctors) do over the next few weeks, UNIFIL has apparently received the message.

#3 from James Jones at 9:24 pm on Jul 28, 2006

"There isn't even a guard at the border and Israeli and foreign journalists pass in and out unhindered. The Ghanaian soldiers weren't even aware of the breach in the fence they are supposed to monitor, by mandate of the United Nations."

Never ascribe to conspiracy what can be explained by sloth, incompetence, or simple negligence.

Unfortunately, that describes many UN operations in both peacekeeping and non-peacekeeping fields. The deliberate tolerance of this kind of unprofessional behavior is a command decision by either senior UN military commanders or senior UN civilian managers.

I don't think we're seeing a deliberate conspiracy against Israel by the UN. Rather, we're seeing a deliberate tolerance of low performance, insufficient assertion of command authority, and intimidation of the local UN troops by Hizballah.

All of which has the effect of aiding Hizballah.

#4 from K at 7:25 pm on Jul 29, 2006

UNIFIL should not be dryed but burnt.

Now I'll be a softy. It is not the observers and troops that should take blame. Many good soldiers, some now needlessly dead.

It is their political masters - repeatedly sending too little, micromanaging, ignoring the mandate for the force.

UNIFIL was in Lebanon to demilitarize the southern border and disarm Hezbollah. Nothing was done. Nothing. Kofi and the bureaucrats made sure the troops lacked both means and political support.

It was just easier for the UN powers to worry about a new headquarters. If any nation mentioned the situation - well, headphones do turn off.