U.N. to boost Beirut observers

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 8

U.N. to boost Beirut observers

NZPA-Reuter New York

The United Nations Security Council yesterday unanimously approved a draft resolution “condemning the criminal massacre of civilians in Beirut." after a five-hour debate in camera.

Diplomatic sources said that the Council . had authorised the SecretaryGeneral. Mr Javier perez de Cuellar, to boost United Nations observers in and around the Lebanese capital from 10 to 50.

The draft resolution urged the secretary-general to start consultations immediately, particularly with the Lebanese Government, about what additional measures the Security Council could take, including the possible deployment of United Nations forces to help the Lebanese Government to give full protection to its civilian population in and around Beirut.

It did not single out the Israelis for blame. The text insisted that United Nations observers should not be hindered in any way and should have full freedom of movement. It also insisted that all the parties concerned should permit these observers, and possible United Nations forces, to follow their mandate. It reminded all United Nations members of their obligation under article 25 of the United Nations Charter to accept and implement Security Council decisions.

The draft text contained suggestions coming, after consultation, from France, Ireland, Jordan and- the Soviet Union. The United States did not immediately give its agreement. but finally did so after a final amendment to the text, sources said. Earlier, the Palestine Liberation Organisation alleged that 1500 Palestinian civi-

lians had been massacred by Israeli commandos aided by some Lebanese Christian militia. A P.L.O. observer. Zehdi Tezi. said: “The Judeo-Nazis desecrated the day of Rosh Hashanah. the Jewish new year. It is now in the annals of history marked as the black. Rosh Hashanah.

“Fifteen hundred helpless civilians, mostly women and children, were butchered in cold blood. The men were rounded up, placed against a wall and shot in very Nazilike fashion." > Before the Council meeting got under way. the United States. France and Italy, with the concurrence of Lebanon, urged the immediate dispatch of United Nations observers to the “sites of the greatest human suffering and losses" in and around Beirut. At the start of the Council meeting Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar, gave details of the situation as provided by a group of 10 United Nations observers already in the Lebanese capital.

“From 1600 to 1830 hours G.M.T. on September 17 (4 a.m.-6.30 a:m. Saturday, N.Z. time) explosions were heard at an undetermined distance north-west of Yarze where the United Nations observer group is temporarily located. Four minutes before midnight G.M.T. (midday Saturday), flares were seen over the Sabra area, he said.

“In the morning of September 18 all of West Beirut was under I.D.F. (Israel Defence Force) control. The presence of Kataeb units was again observed in Bir Hassan in the vicinity of Sabra camp, as well as an estimated at least 1000 Kataeb soldiers with tanks and vehicles in the airport area.

“Two teams of observers reached the Sabra camp at 0830 hours G.M.T. (8.30 p.m.

Saturday evening) and found many clusters of bodies of men. women and children in civilian clothes who appeared to have been massacred in groups of 10 or 20. "The Sabra camp is dominated by two I.D.F. positions 200 and 500 metres respectively west of the camp. According to information received from the Lebanese Army, the units seen in the Bir Hassan, Sabra. and airport areas were in fact Kataeb units mixed with Lebanese de facto forces coming from southern Lebanon," Mr Perez de Cuellar said. “De facto forces" is the United nation's term for the militia headed by Saad Haddad, a Lebanese Christian ally of Israel’s who controls a strip of territory along Lebanon's southern border. Mr Perez de Cuellar said that he had been told by the Israeli United Nations Ambassador, Mr Yehuda Blum, that the Israeli Army had been deployed west of the Palestinian camps. The Israeli Army had left access to the east open in the expectation that the Lebanese Army would enter and take up positions called for by the plan drafted by the American special envoy, Philip Habib.

Mr Blum had said that this did not happen and when the Israeli army found out, on the morning of September 18 (Saturday evening, N.Z.T.), it had surrounded the camp, to protect the population. Mr Perez de Cuellar said that a second message from Mr Blum had informed him that an arrangement had been reached between Israeli forces and the Lebanese armed forces for the latter to enter the three Palestinians camps. Fakhani, Sabra, and Shatila, at 10 a.m. on Sunday morning (8 p.m. yesterday, N.Z.T.).