Situation in Lebanon – LAS resolution – Letter from Sudan

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Fiftieth session Fiftieth year

Item 44 of the preliminary list*

THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Letter dated 12 April 1995 from the Permanent Representative

of the Sudan to the United Nations addressed to the

Secretary-General

In my capacity as Chairman of the Arab Group for April 1995, I have the honour to enclose herewith a copy of resolution 5459 adopted by the 103rd session of the Council of the League of Arab States on 29 March 1995.  It concerns Lebanese hostages and detainees held in Israeli prisons and detention centres.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under item 44 of the preliminary list, and the Security Council.

(Signed)  Ali Mohamed Osman YASSIN  

Permanent Representative  

of the Republic of the Sudan

to the United Nations   

Chairman of the Arab Group

________________________

* A/50/50.

95-10964 (E)   180495  180495 /…

ANNEX

Resolution adopted on 29 March 1995 by the

Council of the League of Arab States

The Council of the League,

Having considered the General Secretariat's report and the recommendation of the Council of Political Affairs,

Strongly condemning inhuman Israeli practices in occupied Lebanese territory in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa, particularly the abduction and arbitrary detention of innocent people and their incarceration without trial in Israeli prisons and detention centres run by their forces,

Taking note with regret of Israel's failure to implement United Nations Security Council resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978) and 509 (1982),

Recalling the principles of international law concerning the protection of human rights, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and The Hague Convention of 1907,

Noting Israel's refusal to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross or other international organizations to visit detainees or investigate humanitarian and health conditions and the circumstances in which some of them have died,

Recalling also the resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,

1. Condemns continued Israeli human rights violations in southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa, exemplified by the abduction and arbitrary detention of civilians, the destruction of their houses, seizure of their property, expulsion from their land and the shelling of villages and peaceful civilian areas;

2. Requests the international community, especially the United Nations, to use the necessary measures to force Israel to desist from such violations and to implement Security Council resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978) and 509 (1982), which demand Israel's complete, immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all Lebanese territory, and respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Lebanon;

3. Requests also that the international community should take all possible measures against Israel in order to secure the release of all Lebanese prisoners and abducted persons held in Israeli prisons or detention centres run by their forces in contravention of the provisions of international law and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and The Hague Convention of 1907;

  4. Urges Member States to make every effort through international organizations to make arrangements with the Government of Israel, the State which is occupying territory in southern Lebanon, to enable the International Committee of the Red Cross and the other humanitarian organizations to visit those detained in Khiam and Marjayoun and ascertain the conditions of the detainees, to provide them with humanitarian and health care and to allow their relatives to visit them regularly;

5. Also requests that the investigations provided for by international conventions should be carried out into the deaths of Lebanese detainees held in Israeli prisons and detention centres, and that the proper compensation should be paid in accordance with the applicable rules of international law;

6. Decides to remain seized of the matter until the Lebanese territory is liberated and the detainees released.

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