Indian jawans move to Lebanon after Sierra Leone to maintain peace

Indian jawans move to Lebanon after Sierra Leone to maintain peace
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

JERUSALEM, JULY 30: After showing valour in Sierra Leone, a group of 50 Indian peacekeepers early today took up positions along the Lebanese-Israeli border in a zone formerly occupied by Israel.

On the Al-Labbouneh hill close to Nagoura on the Lebanese border with Israel, the Indian peacekeepers hoisted the United Nations flag and set up four tents after Lebanese government gave green signal for deploying more of the international force.

The Indian soldiers, who form part of peacekeepers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), errected road blockades to keep a cattle herder and his flock from following them.

"This is an historic moment for UNIFIL, which after 22 years in the field in South Lebanon is now finally beginning to fulfil its original mandate", the force's spokesman Daljeet Bagga was quoted as saying.

A unit of about 50 other Irish peacekeepers in five white armored vehicles, accompanied by a bulldozer, moved to an area on the border just across from the Israeli town of Metulla.

As they deployed, two UN soldiers stopped by for coffee at a nearby position of Hezbollah, the guerrillas who fought the Israelis in southern Lebanon for 22 years and have taken effective control of the border area after the Israeli withdrawal.

Guerrilla leaders have pledged to cooperate with the Lebanese government and UNIFIL.

About 5,000 UNIFIL peacekeepers are stationed in areas further North from the border in southern Lebanon since a 1978 Israeli invasion. They have been waiting to move to the border region in line with UN resolutions after Israeli troops ended their occupation of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon in May.

Lebanon has been refusing to consent to the UN to deploy to the border, maintaining that Israel first must end violations of Lebanese territory.

On Saturday, a UN statement said President Emile Lahoud authorized deployment of the UN force to four locations along the border. On Friday, Irish and Ghanaian peacekeepers took over two border hills at Manara and Yaroun that have been the site of recent Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.

Indian peacekeepers are displaying their mettle in Sierra Leone where Revolutionaly United Force (RUF) rebels have repeatedly carrying out attacks aginst them taking several soldiers as hostages.

On July 15, in a rare display of force, UN troops freed all 222 Indian peacekeepers and 11 military observers held by rebels in eastern Sierra Leone.

Early this month, rebels freed another 21 Indian peacekeepers held hostage in an eastern Sierra Leonean town on the intervention of Liberia's President Charles Taylor.