U.N. Prepares to Sign Off on Israeli Pullout From Lebanon

Despite last-minute objections from the Lebanese government, the United Nations appears ready to declare Israel’s withdrawal from this nation complete, a key step in pacifying the last active Arab-Israeli war front.

U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said Tuesday that he expects both Lebanon and Israel will temporarily put aside objections over the way the border between them has been fixed and accept the U.N. ruling, which could be handed down by the Security Council as early as Thursday.

Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon on May 24, ending a bloody 22-year occupation. But it has been up to the U.N. to verify that the withdrawal was full and complete, a determination that would open the way for the deployment of additional U.N. peacekeepers and deprive Lebanese Islamic guerrillas of a pretext for launching attacks against Israel.

Roed-Larsen, winding up a two-week mission, said maps indicating the “withdrawal line” between Lebanon and Israel were delivered to the two governments Tuesday, and U.N. forces today will inspect the length of the frontier to make sure Israelis are where they should be.

Lebanon this week raised objections to three geographical slivers where, it argues, the Israeli occupation continues. Lebanese newspapers suggested that the Lebanese government, along with Hezbollah guerrillas who fought for years to oust Israeli troops, would refuse to accept a U.N. ruling that does not address these objections.

But Roed-Larsen, speaking at a news conference here after a meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Salim Hoss, dismissed the disputes. The line in question is a 1923 boundary drawn by British and French colonial rulers. Lebanon, Israel and the U.N. each have a different view of exactly where the line goes.

Roed-Larsen said it was more noteworthy that “there are so few points of divergence of views [between Lebanon and Israel] and that the distances involved are small, ranging from 10 to 200 meters [about 11 to 218 yards] and in only a few places.”

Roed-Larsen said the U.N. was not technically demarcating a border and that Lebanon and Israel--and Syria, which controls Lebanon and has pending territorial disputes with the Israelis--were free to take up rival border claims later.

Under U.N. resolutions and regulations, Israel had to meet other requirements for its withdrawal to be judged complete, but those have become moot, Roed-Larsen said. Israel’s proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army, was required to disband but instead collapsed in the early hours of the withdrawal. And a notorious prison that should have been closed was overrun by the local population and its inmates freed.

Lebanon and Israel have agreed to disagree, for now, on a piece of territory known as Shabaa Farms. Lebanon claims the area, but Israel says it is part of land seized from Syria during the 1967 Middle East War.

Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon was abrupt and, in some cases, violent. Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of apparently targeting civilians in shelling that claimed at least four lives.

One of the cases investigated by the London-based human rights organization involved a veteran aide and driver for the BBC, Lebanese-born Abed Taqoush. He was killed May 23 when his car was shelled near the Lebanese-Israeli border, where he had driven with a BBC correspondent and a cameraman.

In a 13-page report released Tuesday, Amnesty International said Israeli forces directed tank fire from their side of the border at Lebanese civilians in several incidents, killing Taqoush and three others. “The people killed appear all to have been targeted, without warning, even though they were not engaged in hostilities,” the report said.

The group called for an investigation, punishment of those found responsible and compensation for the victims’ families.

There was no immediate official Israeli comment on the report as a whole. But the Israeli army said the incident involving the BBC was under investigation, with results expected in the next few days. The army said it expected to review videotape of the incident.