Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 18 February 1993 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to inform you of a series of aggressive acts perpetrated by Israel in southern Lebanon and in the western Bekaa on 17 February 1993.

At dawn, Israeli artillery units, stationed at Tallat al-Ahmadiyah, Tumat Niha and Marj Uyun began to shell the villages of Mashgharah and Ayn at-Tinah. The artillery fire hit dozens of dwellings and killed dozens of head of livestock.

Supported by field artillery units, armoured units and helicopter units that used incendiary bombs and Milan rockets, the Israeli forces launched a series of lethal attacks against dozens of villages situated in the regions of Nabatiyah and Iqlim al-Tuffah.  The shelling resulted in dead and wounded and caused considerable material damage.

The town of Nabatiyah was subjected to heavy shelling that killed two civilians and wounded forty others.

During the entire day of 17 February, Lebanese army posts situated at Kafr Hawra, Jarjus and Kafr Tibnit were the target of sporadic Israeli shelling.

While condemning and denouncing this large-scale aggression that resulted in many dead and wounded among the Lebanese civilian population and caused considerable material damage, the Lebanese Government urges the members of the Council, and in particular its five permanent members, to adopt, in the light of the policy that Israel is conducting against Lebanon and its inhabitants, a firm attitude that could halt Israel's bloody acts of aggression and end its occupation of southern Lebanon in accordance with Council resolution 425 (1978).

Such a step would enable the Security Council to maintain its credibility and continue its role in the area of international peace-keeping and security, strengthen and promote the arduous peace process that is currently under way and thereby contribute to the establishment of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 35, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Khalil MAKKAWI

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

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