Secretary-General reports on mission of inquiry findings after visit to three countries.

• Position: Javier Perez de Cuellar

Secretary-General reports on mission of inquiry findings after visit to three countries

"UNIFIL faces a major crisis", theSecretary-General declared in summing up his report (S/18348). Recent weeks had witnessed a "dangerously high level of violence" in the Force's area of deployment, which had brought to a head difficulties which from the beginning had been inherent in the situation, because of the failure of parties at various times to give UNIFIL full co-operation.

In particular, he said, Israel's refusalto withdraw completely from territory occupied during its 1982 invasion in Lebanon had led to "steadily growing military activity against the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and the "South Lebanon Army" (SLA). It had not so far proved possible to persuade Israel to withdraw, and in those circumstances, it had been impossible for UNIFIL to prevent its area of deployment from being used for "hostile activities". Some parts of that area had become the "scene of almost continuous hostilities", with consequent dangers to UNIFIL personnel.

Despite its "uncomfortable anddangerous" position, UNIFIL continued to "make an important contribution" to "such peace and stability as exists in southern Lebanon". If it were withdrawn, the Secretary-General believed there would be "an immediate intensification of hostilities" between IDF/SLA and the various armed groups "which wish to drive Israeli forces out of Lebanon". Israel itself might be attacked, and the mission had reported that Israel had indicated its reaction would be "very severe" and expansion of the "security zone" would not be excluded. "There would thus be a grave risk of the conflict spreading", he said. "The main sufferers would be the civilian population of southern Lebanon who would again be forced to flee their homes and abandon their land to the combatants."

If the Council was to continue to askthe troop-contributing countries to put the lives of their nationals at risk in the dangerous situation in southern Lebanon, they must be given reason to hope that their sacrifices had not been in vain and that a solution to that longstanding problem was in sight, that their soldiers must be able to operate in conditions of reasonable security, and that they must be reimbursed at the rates laid down by the General Assembly.

The solution lay, he said, in thecomplete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory and the deployment of UNIFIL to the international frontier "where it can play the role originally assigned to it of restoring international peace and security."

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