UN investigators in Lebanon for tape probe

UN investigators have arrived in Lebanon to probe the handling of a UN videotape that Israel says may shed light on the kidnapping of three of its soldiers last year, diplomatic sources said yesterday.

An Indian member of UNIFIL, the UN mission in south Lebanon, shot the tape last October, a day after Hizbollah fighters snatched the three Israelis, whom it wants to swap for Israel's Arab prisoners. The tape row has brought the United Nations under fire from Israel, Lebanon and Hizbollah, all of which say the global body is aiding their enemies.

The tape, shot near the site of the abduction, shows members of Hizbollah blocking UNIFIL troops from towing away two vehicles that may have been used to snatch the Israelis. The United Nations, which for months told Israeli officials it had no knowledge of the tape, is now offering to show it to the Jewish state with the faces of non-UN personnel obscured.

Israel objects to this masking of the tape while Lebanon and Hizbollah say that showing Israel the video in any form amounts to providing their enemy with information. Hizbollah warns it will consider UN peacekeepers to be enemy spies if the tape is handed over. Israeli officials say the tape has fanned its suspicions of complicity between Hizbollah and UN peacekeepers.

An Israeli paper has quoted an unnamed Indian peacekeeper as saying Hizbollah bribed UN troops with drinks, cash and women to secure their help in the kidnapping. Hizbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, and UNIFIL have both said those allegations are baseless.

Hizbollah, the main force in driving Israel from southern Lebanon in May last year after a 22-year occupation, vows to drive Israel out of Shebaa Farms, the area of the kidnapping where Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights meet. The United Nations says Israel has pulled out completely from Lebanon and does not recognise claims by Beirut, Damascus and Hizbollah that the Shebaa Farms area in Lebanon. It says the area is part of Syria.