Hizbollah pushes past guards in show of force

By Patrick Bishop
August 21, 2006
The Telegraph (UK)
Original Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/21/wmid221.xml

Hizbollah mourners on a funeral parade shoved aside anti-tank barriers at a United Nations base in Lebanon yesterday in a demonstration of their new political strength.
The party had been told it would be allowed to bury three martyrs at the Naqoura town cemetery inside the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) compound, but only if there was no flag-waving or political sloganising.
When the chanting procession, several hundred strong, reached the gates, it found the way barred by cruci-form steel tank traps. Mourners argued with the French guards, but failed to gain entry.
A mob of young men then dragged the barriers away and the UN opened the gates. They will eat us alive, said a middle-aged official as the throng surged in.
A column of black-shirted men carried the three coffins to the graveyard. They waved yellow Hizbollah banners and portraits of the movement's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and yelled anti-Israeli and anti-American doggerel.
Among the mourners was Naqoura's mayor, Hussein Darwish, a 59-year-old former teacher. Israel is allowed to carry on raiding our country without Unifil doing anything, he said, referring to an abortive raid by Israeli commandos in the Bekaa valley the previous day. Why do they try to stop us burying our dead the way we wish? The angry scenes were seen as a troubling portent of what may happen when a boosted UN force begins deploying to police the delicate, week-old ceasefire.
Until now we've had good relations, but I don't know what will happen after this, said Mr Darwish. Every-one is waiting. Others among the mourners complained that when they sought shelter at the base during the bombardments of the month-long conflict, they were placed in open ground without bedding or water.
Unifil's hitherto easy dealings with the locals are partly due to its initial mandate, which only required it to observe and report. The new force will be expected to fill the space left by the departing Israelis and Hizbollah fighters, and police the border area, although its rules of engagement have not been finalised.
Its activities will inevitably bring it into close contact with Hizbollah, which has moved fast to consolidate its political grip on the region.
Nowhere in the border area yesterday was there any sign of the Lebanese Army. It has been warned by Israel that it will not be allowed to deploy close to the frontier before the arrival of international troops. There was little sign yesterday that the security vacuum would be filled soon. 
UN officials are desperate to get a vanguard force of 3,500 on the ground within a fortnight. But Israel is opposing the use of troops from some of the Muslim countries with which it does not have diplomatic ties but have offered to supply soldiers.
By last night, Unifil's standing force of 2,000 had been supplemented only by the arrival of 49 French military engineers.