The United Nations team investigating the dispute over a videotape shot in the wake of the capture of three Israeli soldiers on October 7 left Lebanon on Tuesday after completing the inquiry earlier than expected, reported the Daily Star newspaper.
Israel has slammed the investigation as unbalanced, complaining that the UN team has refused to consult with Israeli officials as part of its inquiry.
The eight-member team, headed by UN Undersecretary General Joseph Connor, concluded their investigation Monday after having interviewed UN personnel and visited the scene where the occupation troops were captured.
The inquiry revolved around the UN’s handling of a videotape shot by an Indian peacekeeper a day after the Israelis were captured.
The UN originally told Israel the tape did not exist. But three weeks ago, the UN confirmed there was a videotape after all. Israel accused the UN of a cover-up.
UN sources said that most of the team returned directly to New York. However, one member of the team traveled on Tuesday to the headquarters of the UN Truce Supervision Organization in Jerusalem to seek confirmation of a report published in the Daily Star last Friday, claiming that all material regarding the capture was subsequently destroyed, the same paper said.
The Daily Star quoted a former UN military observer as saying that days after the capture of the three soldiers, UNTSO headquarters ordered the destruction of all written reports and photographic material on the affair due to the “potential sensitivity of the issue.”
The source also said that additional equipment was found in the two vehicles abandoned by the Lebanese Hizbollah movement that had not been made public before. The equipment is thought to have been one or more mobile phones.
UNIFIL has denied any extra equipment was recovered from the vehicles and insists no evidence was destroyed. But the source said that the order applied to UNTSO personnel and UNIFIL may have been unaware of it, said the paper.
The UN investigators are expected to release their findings by the end of the week.
Israel, however, has criticized the UN for refusing to consult with Israeli authorities as part of the investigation.
“They told us that they refuse. This really surprised us. We don’t understand how you can hold an investigation without talking to us,” said Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay, cited by Haaretz newspaper.
In New York, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said the investigation was an internal probe only.
“The investigative team has no need to talk to government officials either in Lebanon or Israel. But if those officials have anything they consider relevant to our inquiry, we’d be happy to receive it. And we told them that,” Eckhard said, cited by the paper.
UN sources said that the Israelis had been under the impression that the investigation would examine the allegations raised in the Israeli media recently, among which was the charge that Indian UNIFIL peacekeepers were bribed by Hizbollah to look the other way during the operation.
The media criticism of UNIFIL continued Tuesday, with Israel’s Maariv daily quoting a “high-ranking Israeli officer” as saying that the Israeli Army had severed all contact since the kidnapping with UNIFIL’s acting force commander, Brigadier General Ganesan Athmanathan, an Indian.
The UN source dismissed the report, noting that Athmanathan had been invited to attend the opening ceremony of Israel’s Maccabiah Games, the so-called Jewish Olympics, two weeks ago, the Daily Star said.
The source added that despite recent criticism of Indian troops, Israel was not expected to voice opposition to the naming of an Indian general to assume the role of UNIFIL commander in the next few days.
The source noted that Israel and India last week reached an agreement potentially worth millions of dollars allowing the sale of Israeli weapons and technology to the Indian military – Albawaba.com
