Secretary-General's press encounter at the end of his visit to UNIFIL headquarters (unofficial transcript)

SG: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This has been a great opportunity for me to come to Naqoura to thank the women and men of UNIFIL under the leadership of Maj-Gen Alain Pellegrini for the wonderful work they have done. Their role is something misunderstood and criticized and they are never given credit for the wonderful things they have done and the sacrifices they have made.

Since the UN came here, we have lost almost 300 people in the service of peace. During this recent crisis, General Pellegrini and his men were remarkable. They could all ask us to be redeployed and to get them out of harm's way but they knew that the time will come when they will be needed to help the civilian population, to help the humanitarian activities, to help put bridges and roads so that we can get off the ground, running humanitarian relief recovery. Those are men and women who really in the [inaudible] of crisis and have to survive on a half bottle of water a day, could not take any shower because there was no water, could not come out of their bunkers and yet they never said “get us out of here.” When even the suggestion was made, they said “No, we are needed here, my men and myself, we want to stay, and Mr. Secretary-General we are all talking of stabilization, we need to be here for you to be able to build up, and we have work to do”.

And I really want to thank him for his leadership, and the wonderful work he and his [inaudible] have done. We are expecting reinforcements in the coming days and weeks to help, to join the force, and help stabilize the force, and facilitating the Israeli withdrawal, and hand over to the Lebanese army, and in all that effort General Pellegrini and his men, and his DFC will coordinate all these facts.

Q: We watched and listened yesterday as you talked to the Lebanese side, and you couldn't have been clearer, even us in the news media understood you perfectly. If Israel and Hizbullah are serious, as they are about this ceasefire, what must they do in the next 48 hours?

SG: That's a very good question. I think first of all we have managed under General Pellegrini's leadership to establish a Security Coordination Mechanism. We have had 3-4 meetings already - the Israeli army and the Lebanese army - under his chairmanship. It is important for the two sides to come together, to press forth, to reaffirm their acceptance and the speedy implementation of resolution 1701, to affirm, and actually cooperate in the withdrawal and the handover process. I think there is a lot that can be done. With good will it can be done faster than we are doing. We, on our side, we are trying to get in the additional reinforcements as quickly as we can. And I think the Israelis need to move on what are certain key issues which are becoming serious irritants on both sides.

We need to resolve the issue of the abducted soldiers very quickly, obviously the issue of the prisoners, which will also have to be dealt with. We need to deal with the lifting of the embargo, sea, land and air, which for the Lebanese is a humiliation, and infringement on their sovereignty, and of course the government need measures to assure, ensure that the entrances to their country, sea land and air, are secure.

And the Prime Minister and his government have taken very serious steps too. First of all, they have deployed to the North and East of the country, we have thousands of soldiers deployed which has not taken place before. They are also in serious consultation with the German government, to give them expertise and equipment in order to protect their land boarder, the airports and the sea, and I think the time has come for the siege to be lifted, the Lebanese have shown their serious about the implementation of 1701 in all the deployments and efforts they have made.

So, I think these are essential steps, but they will also be very serious confidence building exercises, to reinforce our efforts to stabilize the situation.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, what are your impressions from South Beirut today, both the hostile reaction to you personally and the destruction?

SG: The destruction was quite shocking actually, [inaudible] and I could understand the anger and the frustration of some of those who had lived there. But, what happened yesterday was really a little side show put on to impress me. And I think some of the young ones got a bit over zealous, so that, that was fine.

Q: Sir, we have witnessed so many violations of the resolution from the Israeli side in the latest days. What are you going to say to the Israeli leaders regarding this issue?

SG: No, I have maintained that both parties have to respect the ceasefire, and the agreement. And when we declared the ceasefire I sent both governments a letter with one page attached, indicating what should be done, and what should not be done - explaining very clearly what I understood cessation of hostilities to mean. And the referee is Gen Pellegrini on the ground, and myself and the Security Council at headquarters. Parties with complaints on the ground - they should come to General Pellegrini, not take matters into their own hands. You cannot have, it's a bit like having a football match where one of the teams also attempts to play the referee. You cannot be a team in a football match and the referee at the same time. If there are problems, they have to go to Pellegrini, or come to me. I urge all parties to respect, scrupulously, the ceasefire. We do have a chance to turn this into a permanent ceasefire. And with an agreement on the political framework, we really have a chance to build a peaceful Lebanon. We don't want to go back to a situation where we can have an explosion like this in six months, or six years. Let's make sure this time it's for good, and it requires both sides to cooperate.