Truce monitors refrain from assigning blame
Lebanon-Israel, Military, 1/13/1998

A cease-fire monitoring committee ended its first meeting of the year Tuesday without assigning blame to any of the parties involved in recent fighting in south Lebanon that resulted in a number of casualties.

The committee met at the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in the coastal town of Naqoura to discuss six complaints lodged by Lebanon and Israel, each side accusing the other of violating an April 1996 US-brokered understanding.

The understanding, which followed an Israeli offensive against guerrillas in south Lebanon in which over 150 Lebanese civilians were killed, stipulates that combating parties would refrain from attacking civilians on both sides of the border.

The committee which monitors the understanding is made up of representatives from the United States, France, Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

It meets regularly in Naqoura to discuss complaints filed by both Lebanon and Israel.

A statement issued by the group acknowledged that shells fired by Israeli forces in December had damaged six houses in the village of Majdel Zoun and injured an innocent civilian on January 5.

It also acknowledged that mortar rounds fired by a "Lebanese armed group" caused material damage and killed several goats in Israeli-occupied south Lebanon and that guerrillas were firing from civilian-populated areas, which is also prohibited under the terms of the April understanding.

The committee "urged that combatants act strictly in accordance with the provisions of the (April) Understanding and that greater precautions be taken to ensure that civilians are not affected in the course of military actions."

Previous Stories:
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  Lebanon resistance carried out 800 military operations in 1997   (1/5/1998)

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