New York, Jul 2 2010 2:10PM
The freedom of movement of United Nations peacekeepers serving in south Lebanon must be fully respected, the world body's top official in the country said today, voicing concern at recent incidents involving protests directed at blue helmets.
Earlier this week villagers reportedly staged numerous protests against the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (<"http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unifil/">UNIFIL) during a maximum deployment exercise carried out by the mission, which is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah.
UNIFIL regularly carries out such exercises to ensure the readiness of its troops on the ground. The UN has noted that particular care is taken to minimize disturbance or inconvenience to the local population during the operation, and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are fully informed of the activity, its nature and purpose.
"UNIFIL's freedom of movement was violated and UN troop-contributing countries are quite concerned," Michael Williams, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, said in a statement following his meeting in Beirut with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
"We must insist that the freedom of movement of UNIFIL is fully respected," he said. "UNIFIL's exercise in the area was carried out as part of its normal operations and with full respect of its mandate, and indeed the LAF assisted UNIFIL in defusing tensions."
Mr. Williams added that he and Mr. Berri agreed on the need to work hard to prevent any recurrence of the problems of the past week and that all parties must be involved in trying to defuse these tensions.
The two men also discussed the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hizbollah. It also calls for respect of the so-called Blue Line separating the Israeli and Lebanese sides, the disarming of all militias operating in Lebanon and an end to arms smuggling in the area.
The Special Coordinator noted that UNIFIL's presence and deployment in the south and its close work and coordination with the LAF "provide the backbone for the implementation of resolution 1701 in a way that serves the interests of Lebanon and the stability of the entire region."
UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters on Wednesday that UNIFIL is making every effort to talk to the communities and explain to them the nature and purpose of the activity to clear up any misunderstandings they may have. The enhanced deployment operations concluded on 30 June.
Jul 2 2010 2:10PM
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