Three Israeli soldiers abducted in October near the Lebanon border may have been seriously injured and could have died from their wounds, the United Nations reported today.
In a report about how it mishandled information and videotapes centering on the soldiers' abduction by Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas, the United Nations faulted itself for not passing such information to Israel quickly.
The soldiers, UN peacekeepers concluded at the time, may have been badly injured and may succumb to their injuries.This finding was not relayed to New York or Israel, UN officials told a news conference.
Today's report, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, contained other embarrassments for the world organization related to videotapes taken during and after the kidnapping of the three soldiers.After admitting in early July, following months of denials, that it videotaped vehicles apparently used in the kidnapping, the report disclosed the United Nations had another film, taken on October 7th, the day of the kidnapping.
The United Nations did not find any videotape of the actual abduction, said Mr Joseph Connor, the UN under secretary-general for management. He led the investigation and wrote the report.
But he said, the fact that the United Nations was in possession of a second videotape made on October 7th and whose existence was unknown in New York until July 16th, is a matter of serious concern.The report was commissioned when it was learned an Indian UN peacekeeper in southern Lebanon on October 8th, 18 hours after the abduction, filmed a confrontation between UN peacekeepers in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Hizbollah.
That tape, whose existence was denied for months by the United Nations, showed two abandoned cross country vehicles with fake UN license plates and UN uniforms, among more than 50 different types of items removed by the peacekeepers.
As the peacekeepers were about to tow the vehicles, believed to have been used in the abduction, Hizbollah guerrillas stopped them and made off with the vehicles.
Nevertheless, Connor's report concluded there was no collusion between UNIFIL peacekeepers and Hizbollah in the kidnapping and that the failure to inform Israel of the videotapes resulted from lapses in judgment and failures in communication, not from conspiracies.Mr Annan, who himself denied existence of the videotapes to Israel, announced he was moving quickly to change UN operations and procedures.