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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was
established by the United Nations (UN) Security Council with
Resolution 425 on March 19, 1978, "for the purpose of confirming
the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and
security, and assisting the government of Lebanon in ensuring the
return of its effective authority in the area." Subsequent
Resolution 426 defined UNIFIL's rules of engagement and instructed
it to "use its best efforts to prevent the recurrence of fighting"
and to ensure that its area of operation would not be used for
hostile activities of any kind. UNIFIL consisted of approximately
7,000 men from 14 UN member states and between 30 and 90 military
observers from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization,
headquartered in the town of An Naqurah.
UNIFIL, however, encountered difficulty in performing its
mission. Resolution 425 made "full cooperation of all parties
concerned" a prerequisite for UNIFIL's deployment. Although Israel
had agreed formally to take the necessary steps for compliance with
the resolution, it did not believe that UNIFIL could stop PLO
incursions across the border. Therefore, when Israel started to
withdraw in late March, it refused to relinquish all of the
territory it had conquered in southern Lebanon to UNIFIL. Instead,
Israel turned over an enclave to its proxy force, the SLA,
increasing the area under Major Haddad's control. This area
included not only the ten-kilometer-deep security belt adjacent to
the Israeli border but also a vertical north-south corridor running
from the border to the Litani River and splitting the UNIFIL area
into two noncontiguous zones
(see
fig. 10).
Other parties frustrated the UNIFIL peacekeeping efforts.
Although the PLO also had promised to cooperate with UNIFIL, it
argued that the 1969 Cairo Agreement entitled it to operate in
southern Lebanon, and it attempted to reoccupy areas after Israel
withdrew. Furthermore, on the grounds that the IDF had not occupied
Tyre, the PLO refused to allow UNIFIL to police the city, and
Palestinian patrols attempted repeatedly to pass through UNIFIL
lines. For its part, the SLA did not even make a pretense of
cooperating with UNIFIL. Instead, it attacked UNIFIL personnel and
encroached on UNIFIL's perimeter. Nevertheless, UNIFIL restored
order to the areas under its control and served as an effective
buffer force insulating Israel from the Palestinians. It set up
roadblocks, checkpoints, and observation posts, interdicting
approximately ten guerrilla patrols per month heading toward
Israel. When UNIFIL apprehended Palestinian guerrillas, it
confiscated their weapons but usually returned them later to PLO
leaders. UNIFIL paid a price for performing its mission, however;
between 1978 and 1982, thirty-six UNIFIL members were killed in
action.
In late 1987 the future of UNIFIL was in doubt. Ironically,
Israel, which had long considered UNIFIL a hindrance to its
operations, changed its policy and in 1986 praised the positive
role UNIFIL played in stabilizing the region. For its part, the
government of Lebanon requested that UNIFIL be expanded to police
almost the entire country. But at the same time, the Shias in
southern Lebanon, who had traditionally supported UNIFIL, turned
against the organization. In September 1986, Shia extremists
started attacking UNIFIL's French contingent, and in five weeks of
combat they killed four and wounded thirty. UNIFIL's casualty toll
mounted and by mid-1987 stood at 139 killed and over 200 wounded.
In 1986 the United States Congress cut the annual United States
appropriation to UNIFIL from US$40 million to US$18 million, while
France announced that it would withdraw its troops from UNIFIL in
1987.
Data as of December 1987
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