Israeli forces shelled Khiam practically incessantly

HS examined the course of a dramatic and tragic day in July

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      By Inka Kovanen in Khiam, Lebanon
     
      On a chilly grey day in the drizzle, the UN observation post at Khiam - or at least what is left of it - is as forlorn a place as you can find in Southern Lebanon.
      A torn and twisted blue UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation) sign hangs by the gates of the observation post.
      White-painted blocks of masonry with the UN colours on them are spread around in broken pieces all over the area. A large slab of concrete with a U painted on it in black still stands upright, but the N that accompanied it is lying on its side on the ground.
     
The air strike by Israeli jets on the Khiam post on July 25th killed four unarmed UN observers.
      A 500-kilo precision-guided bomb scored a direct hit on the station, under which the observers were taking shelter in a bunker.
      One of the dead men was a Finn, 29-year-old Navy Lieutenant Jarno Mäkinen. The others were observers from Canada, Austria, and China.
     
From the very first days of hostilities in Lebanon, the Israeli Defence Forces shelled the Khiam area with artillery barrages and air strikes, almost without pause, according to a source who knows the course of events well.
      The destruction is abundantly evident in Khiam, where hundreds of buildings were destroyed or damaged.
      On the very first day, July 12th, a 155 mm artillery shell hit the front of a house next to the observation post, around twenty metres from the station's perimeter fence.
      After this incident, the observers reported several other so-called near-misses. They were periodically obliged to take cover in the concrete bunker below the three-storey building.
     
The shelling became such a routine exercise that the UNTSO observers would sometimes go outside briefly, even though the bombardment was still going on.
      The observers did not feel they were under direct threat, since they believed the UN mandate and their reinforced shelter would protect them, the source said.
      On the day of the fatal air strike, there was a report from the Khiam area at 13:22 of 95 artillery shells fired and 91 bombs dropped from aircraft. Two were listed as near-misses.
      The former Khiam Detention Center, in use as a museum, received 13 hits from aerial bombardment. It was roughly 200 metres from the observation post.
     
According to Jane Holl Lute, the UN's Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, during the final six hours a total of 21 shells fell within 300 metres radius from the observation post. Twelve of these were inside 100 metres from the station, and four actually hit the building.
      At 18:29, the observers reported by radio that the base had received four hits from incoming artillery.
      This set in motion an evacutation process, and permission was obtained from the Israeli side to get the observers out at 7 a.m. the following morning, July 26th.
     
After each report from Khiam, an Irish liaison officer stationed at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqura contacted the IDF and demanded that they cease the shelling of the post.
      "They called the Israelis 12 times requesting they stop the bombardment", the source reports. Israel was contacted from Lebanon, from the UNTSO HQ in Israel itself, and from New York.
      According to UN sources, the Israeli liaison promised to investigate the situation. In each case, the shelling stopped briefly, but was soon resumed.
     
At approximately 7 p.m. on the 25th, the commander of the Indian UNIFIL peacekeeping battalion spoke on the phone with the leader of the observers, Austrian Major Hans-Peter Lang. According to Lang, the observers were safe, but the situation was dangerous.
      The Finnish commander of Observer Group Lebanon (OGL), Colonel Rolf Kullberg, had also spoken with Lang by mobile phone at around 18:30.
      "This was the first time when they said it was no longer safe to be in there. The bunker had already suffered some damage, and the door would not close properly. Until that point all had agreed that the shelter was a safe refuge", said Kullberg.
      He issues the reminder that the safest place during an artillery barrage was this shelter, and the nature of the bombardment was so fierce that the observers could not in any case have headed out into the open to seek safety elsewhere.
     
Nobody could have anticipated that the UN observers would become a primary target, stresses Kullberg. Hence the shelter in the observation post was not built to withstand a direct hit on the building above by bombs from the air.
      The final radio interchange with the observers apparently took place at 19:17. The fatal air strike occurred between 19:20 and 19:30.
      When contact was lost, it was not at first thought that the observers had been harmed, but rather that the strikes had taken out the telecoms links, one source states.
     
At 21:10, the Indian peacekeeping troops closest to Khiam received orders from UNIFIL HQ to go to Khiam to check on the situation and to evacuate the observers.
      The Indians phoned through to the observers from the perimeter gate, but when they got no reply, they broke open the gates and entered the compound.
      They were faced with a desolate sight: a precision-guided bomb had struck the main building, collapsing it and destroying the shelter.
      In order to gain access to the shelter, the Indian UN troops had to bulldoze the ruins and the walls surrounding the post from on top of the shelter. They were loaned two caterpillar tractors by local police officers.
     
The first body was discovered at 22:10, half an hour after excavation work could get started. Lieutenant Colonel Du Zhaoyu from China was found in the shelter's operations room. The body of Canadian observer Major Paeta Derek Hess-von Kruedener was found from the same room at 22:32.
      Hans-Peter Lang's body was discovered at 01:55 on the following morning in the corridor between the operations room and a storage area.
      The mortal remains of the fourth victim, Navy Lieutenant 1st Class Jarno Mäkinen from Finland, were not found until several days later, on August 4th. His body was eventually discovered in a room behind the medical supplies store.
     
The IDF kept up their bombardment on the area around the observation post even after the rescue operation had been launched, in spite of the fact that agreement had been reached with the Israeli side over access to the area.
      Again on the next day, while excavation of the ruined building was ongoing, peacekeepers twice had to take cover in the Indians' Finnish-made Sisu armoured personnel carrier, one source said.
      This has strengthened the speculations of some military experts and UN sources that the Israeli strike on the observation post was not entirely unintentional or a tragic error of targetting.
      In their view Israel may have wished the observers out of the area in order that the IDF could operate without any obstruction in Lebanon, or that there was something at the position that Israel did not wish to be brought into the public eye.
      Israel has strenuously denied that the strike was deliberate.
      "What this does indicate at any rate is that whatever the nature of the operation, the escalation of the situation can take place in an instant, and there is no such thing as an operation without dangers", says Rolf Kullberg.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.11.2006

More on this subject:
 UN: Hezbollah did not fire from vicinity of observation post on day of air strike

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Shelling sent UN observers constantly running for cover in Khiam (1.11.2006)
  Israel gives oral account of attack on United Nations base in Lebanon (15.9.2006)
  Israel to submit report on death of Finnish UN observer this week (5.9.2006)

Links:
  Attacks on United Nations personnel during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict (Wikipedia)

INKA KOVANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
inka.kovanen@hs.fi