U.N to release Mideast kidnap tape

June 7, 2001
CNN
Original Source: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/07/07/mideast.unvid/
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The United Nations has agreed to release to Israel an edited version of a video that could shed light on the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers.
But Israel wants to see the unedited version of the 30 -minute tape, which is said to show suspected Hezbollah fighters preventing U.N. peacekeepers from seizing two vehicles with fake U.N. identifications.
U.N. officials said they would allow Israel and Lebanon to view the tape only after the faces of the suspected guerillas have been obscured
Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, told Reuters news agency: The video does not shed light on the circumstances of the abduction or the state of the abductees.
He said the U.N. wanted to hide the identities of the guerrillas seen in the tape to assure the confidentiality of its internal documents and protect U.N. personnel.
We are not covering up anything, from the outset. We are not in charge of law and order in southern Lebanon. We have a limited mission that we try to carry out in difficult circumstances, he added.
The U.N. had previously denied the tape's existence in the face of Israeli calls for information about the kidnappings.
Guehenno said U.N. officials had not made the connection between Israeli demands for information that could shed light on the abduction and the tape, which did not show the abduction or even the scene of the abduction in the disputed Shebaa Farms border zone.
He said the tape was shot at a place where U.N. peacekeepers found two abandoned vehicles thought to have been used in the October 7 kidnapping.
Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he has written a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, demanding the tape be handed over.
Ben-Eliezer has been under pressure in Israel to find out what happened to the three soldiers.
There has been no word on their fate since the kidnapping and Hezbollah has refused to provide information regarding the welfare of the soldiers, Red Cross official Rene Kosirnik said on Israel television.
After an 18-year-long guerrilla war against Hezbollah, Israel withdrew its forces from South Lebanon on May 24, 2000.