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You are right; I haven’t read in
detail that deaths of the observers, nor that one was Canadian. My condolences
to you and all other Canadians. The observers aren’t pulled out
because they are there, precisely, to observe any outbreak of hostilities. And
that is likely why they were killed by Israel, as with the USS Liberty. It
doesn’t do much good to have observers if you are going to pull them out
at the first signs of such a breakout, they then wouldn’t be able to do
the job for which they had been placed there. Again: the Israelis do not
have a legal or moral right to kill UN observers, to say nothing of the now
hundreds of Lebanese civilians who have been killed, including the many who are
far away from Hisballah positions. There is a war going on, and the Geneva
conventions and other international rules of war apply to all parties,
including Israel and the Palestinians. Cheers, Lawry From: Cordell, Arthur:
ECOM [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you would pay attention to the news you
would know that Major Hess von Krudener was the Canadian UN observer who died
in bombing. Read carefully and note that both von
Krudener and MacKenzie are saying the same thing. The Hezbollah are very
close, the Israelis are bombing very close. Tactics by the Israelis
dictate that they have to get very close as well. Why the hell didn't the UN pull their
observers when war broke out?? Methinks that Anan doth protest too much. arthur From: Lawrence
de Bivort [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Hmmm! Interesting choice of words!
“[not] deliberate” but a “tactical necessity.”
The efforts to justify the killing by the Israelis seem tortured at
best and disingenuous at worst. Who is ‘Major Hess von
Krudener’. Observer for whom? Cheers, Lawry From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Also I send along this from an email sent
to me by a colleague, To me,
this ties in with an e-mail that Major Hess von Krudener, our observer, sent in
an e-mail, which is apparently posted on CTV's website (I saw this on CNN last
night). He writes of the shellling of the post while it is going on, and says
that he doesn't believe this is deliberte but probably a "tactical
necessity." This suggestss to me that as an experienced military officer
and a UN observer in a variety of assignments he is probably speaking of
necessity caused by a local situation, e.g., clustering of Hezbollah guerrillas
very near to, or perhaps on the grounds of the post above the bunker, or its
use (since it is on the high ground) as an observation post by Hezbollah — something like
this. This is a personal oopinion, but I assume that "tactical
necessity" has a very specific meaning when ujsed by a military
officer......... arthur From: Lawrence
de Bivort [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] What MacKenzie omits from his account are
the several warnings from the UN post to Israel military commanders that
Israeli bombs were falling close by the clearly marked UN post. This reminds me a lot of the attack by
Israel on the USS Liberty. The attack took place over four hours, against a
ship flying the US flag, on a clear day. Several sources have told me that the US
gov’t concluded that the attack was designed to foil the US’s
ability to monitor Israeli and Egyptian actions leading up to and through the
1967 war, when, as we now know, Israel attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
Israel asserted that they had been attacked first, and didn’t want anyone
to controvert them. We can only wonder why Israel attacked the
UN observation post. The prominence of the UN markings and flag on the
post and its several warnings to the Israel military suggest that it could not
have been accidental. So why did Israel attack them? As for Kofi Annan’s reaction, it
would have been surprised if it had not been one of anger, and if he had not called
for an investigation. Perhaps MacKenzie feels that because it was an
Israeli attack that it should be beyond questioning and beyond anger. Arthur, I must assume that you concur with
MacKenzie’s article. Can you respond to these questions? Cheers, Lawry From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Cordell, Arthur: ECOM Comment Kofi Annan's hasty rush to judgment LEWIS MacKENZIE 27 July 2006 A15 English On hearing the news that a United Nations observation
post manned by four unarmed peacekeepers at the nexus of the Israeli, Lebanese
and Syrian borders was struck by an Israeli bomb, an uncharacteristically
forceful Kofi Annan bolted out of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to proclaim his shock
at the “apparently deliberate targeting” by Israel Defence Forces
of the post. The UN Secretary-General went on to say the UN would conduct a
full investigation. A curious statement, considering his comment that the IDF
intentionally targeted the observers. Case closed, n'est-ce pas? Not quite. The
blast on Tuesday claimed the lives of Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener, a
Canadian serving with the UN Truce Supervision Organization mission in southern
Lebanon, and three other UN soldiers. On July 18, Major Hess-von Kruedener had
sent a number of his colleagues, including regimental officers such as myself,
an e-mail describing what the situation was like at his location since the
Israeli attacks began against Hezbollah in Lebanon. “Based
on the intensity and volatility of this current situation and the
unpredictability of both sides (Hezbollah and Israel), and given the
operational tempo of the Hezbollah and the IDF, we are not safe to venture out
to conduct our normal patrol activities. We have now switched to Observation
Post Duties and are observing any and all violations as they occur.” UNTSO
was established in 1948 and is the UN's oldest mission. Canada has participated
since its inception, and one of its current roles has been to monitor the
ceasefire in the Golan Heights after the 1967 Six-Day War. When there had been
a semblance of peace, UN monitoring made considerable sense, so minor
violations could be dealt with quickly. But to leave the observers in place
with a war under way stretches the credibility of the UN's operational judgment
close to the breaking point. The
penultimate paragraph of Major Hess-von Kruedener's e-mail is prophetic, to say
the least: “The closest artillery has landed within two metres of our
position and the closest 1,000-pound aerial bomb has landed 100 metres from our
patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but has rather been due to
tactical necessity.” This is what we call “veiled speech” in military jargon. It
means hiding the truth in lingo that outsiders would not necessarily
understand. What he is saying translates roughly as: “We have Hezbollah
fighters all over our position engaging the IDF and using us as shields. They
will probably stay, hoping that the IDF won't target them for fear of hitting
us.” Surprising?
Not really. I
have served in another mission where one side constantly set up its weapon
systems, including mortars, in and around hospitals, medical clinics, mosques
and, yes, UN positions, knowing full well that, when it engaged its enemies and
received return fire, it would make for compelling TV as the networks covered
the civilian carnage. (When they took up positions around my soldiers, I
advised their leaders that I would authorize my soldiers to kill them within
the hour if they didn't withdraw. Fortunately, as I was not an unarmed
observer, I was in a position to do that.) In many cases, the weapon systems
were moved immediately after firing, and their positions around civilians were
abandoned before innocents paid the price for their despicable techniques. You
have to admit this technique helps to win the PR war, which often is as
important as the fighting one. Certainly, the Secretary-General is familiar with this technique, having
been the UN undersecretary of peacekeeping in the horrific 1990s, when the UN
was floundering in the Balkans, Somalia and Rwanda. For that reason alone — and despite his soft-pedalling yesterday
that the Israeli Prime Minister “definitely believes [the bombing was] a
mistake” — Mr. Annan should not have been so quick to pass judgment
on an event that quite likely was not as it seemed in the hours following the
tragedy. Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie was the first commander of United
Nations peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo. |
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