Mideast situation/Lebanon – Letter from Lebanon

Letter dated 8 November 1988 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 the following:

1. On previous occasions, the Israeli authorities have detained the Lebanese citizens Mahir and Ahmad Yasin, Adil Turmus, Bilal Darkub, Husayn Muqallad, Yusuf Zayn and Qasim al-Sha'bi, Qasim Khamis, Isma'il, Zayn and Answar Yasin, Abd al-Karim Muhammad, Muhammad Ali al-Barsawi and others and have removed them from inside Lebanese territory to Israel in order to bring them to trial under Israeli jurisdiction.

2. The Israeli authorities recently proceeded to detain the Lebanese citizens Nabih Awwadah, Qayid Bandar, Ahmad Isma'il, Ali Hamdun and Ghassan Ayyan and likewise removed them to Israel for the same purpose.

3. The Lebanese Government, in condemning these arbitrary Israeli measures, representing as they do a patent contravention of the Charter of the United Nations, a flagrant violation of the Bill of Human Rights and a shameful breach of international law and the relevant international conventions, in particular article 4 of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, urges the Secretary-General and the Security Council to bring pressure to bear on Israel to release all Lebanese detainees, to return them to Lebanon and to desist from the practice of taking illegal measures which violate the sovereignty of Lebanon and the rights of the Lebanese.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 40, and of the Security Council.