U.N. Admits Israel Was Misled On Tape of Abduction Suspects

By Colum Lynch
July 7, 2001 
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A30016-

UNITED NATIONS, July 6 -- A U.N. official acknowledged today that the United Nations misled Israel about the existence of a U.N. videotape that shows Hezbollah guerrillas who may have been involved in abducting three Israeli soldiers in October. 
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary for peacekeeping, said Israeli and Lebanese authorities would be permitted to view the tape, but only after the guerrillas' faces were obscured. 
Guehenno said the U.N.'s mandate in Lebanon does not permit its observers to provide military intelligence to either side. 
South Lebanon is a war zone, he said. Showing their faces would be considered by one party as providing intelligence to another party and would certainly put in danger the security of our people in Lebanon. 
Israel has demanded the tape, which it believes could help identify the abductors and locate the three soldiers, who were abducted Oct. 7 from Shebaa Farms, an area under Israeli control that is claimed by Syria and Lebanon. 
Guehenno said the 30-minute tape was made by a U.N. peacekeeper a day after the abductions. He said it shows two abandoned vehicles painted with the U.N. insignia and, inside them, some fake U.N. uniforms and blood stains. At the end of the tape, Guehenno said, some Hezbollah guerrillas walked into the camera's view and prevented the U.N. troops from towing the vehicles. 
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Yehuda Lancry, made a formal request June 16 for photographic material taken from the scene of the abduction. The request was denied, according to Guehenno, because in our view nothing in the tape sheds light on the circumstances of the abduction or on the condition of the abductees. 
On June 27, Terje-Roed Larsen, a U.N. envoy, told Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Elion that no tape existed. Guehenno said Larsen was unaware of its existence and had no intention of misleading the Israeli government.