Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 30 March 1988 from the Permanent Representative of

Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government and further to my previous letters, I have the honour to inform you of the following:

On Wednesday, 30 March 1988, at 8.30 a.m. (local time) , a unit of the South Lebanese Army in the pay of Israel attacked Kfar Rummane, a town situated outside the "security zone" which is still occupied by Israel and its agents in Lebanese territory. The unit, composed of 150 men, was supported by eight tanks and other military hardware. The unit withdrew only after three hours, after having subjected the town and the surrounding area, both before and after the operation, to pounding by heavy artillery, which killed five and wounded five others.

This criminal act to which this Lebanese town was subjected and which took a toll in dead and wounded, all of them Lebanese, is further proof, if any were needdd, of the determination of Israel and its agents to continue to impose their presence through violence and to exacerbate tension in southern Lebanon. Israel and its agents persist in flouting the Charter of the United Nations and international rules and norms by violating the sovereignty of a State Member of the United Nations, by subjecting the population to the harshest of punishments and by inflicting on it a heavy toll in human life and material destruction.

The Lebanese Government vehemently condemn this criminal act and appeals to you and to the Security Council to take the necessary to induce Israel to abide by Security Council resolutions calling for respect for the sovereignty, independence and integrity of Lebanese territories, and its total and unconditional withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

The Lebanese Government reserves the right to request the convening of a meeting of the Security Council at a time it deems fit.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under item 40 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Rachid FAKHOURY

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

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*A/43/50.