Elchanan Tannenbaum, St.-Sgt. Benny Avraham, St.-Sgt. Omar Sawaid and Sgt. Adi Avitan (clockwise from top right), kidnapped by the Hizbullah in October 2000. (IDF Spokesman)

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Israeli and Lebanese authorities will soon be permitted to view a United Nations videotape, filmed the day after the Hizbullah kidnapped three IDF soldiers in October 2000. Despite original Israeli expectations that the videotape could shed light on the fate of the Israeli soldiers, or provide information about their abductors, the film to be released by the U.N. will be edited and the faces shown on it have been intentionally blurred.

Israel had repeatedly demanded to receive a copy of the videotape, filmed by Indian soldiers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Until recently, United Nations officials, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Larsen, had denied knowledge of the tape's existence. Some Israeli security officials believe that members of UNIFIL may have seen Hizbullah preparations or the abduction itself.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. Under-Secretary-General

"Nothing in that tape sheds light on the circumstances of the abduction or on the condition of the abductees." - Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping

for Peacekeeping, stressed on Friday that the tape in question was not filmed on the day of the abduction, nor was it filmed at the location of the abduction. "It was filmed on the morning of the 8th of October on the road where the two vehicles allegedly used in the abduction were found."

According to Guehenno, the tape shows the efforts of UNIFIL to tow away one of the vehicles. "Its last segment shows the interception of the vehicles by armed Lebanese, allegedly from the Hizbullah. In our view, nothing in that tape sheds light on the circumstances of the abduction or on the condition of the abductees," Guehenno said.

Guehenno explained that the tape would be provided with faces of non-U.N. personnel obscured in consideration of the security of UNIFIL forces and to avoid being accused by one party in the conflict of providing intelligence to another party.

Israel's delegation to the United Nations called on the organization to provide Israel with an unedited tape. "Israel has the means and equipment to analyze and evaluate in greater detail the content of the tape," an unnamed senior Israeli delegate at the UN told Ha'aretz. "From our point of view, the content of the tape may shed new light on the circumstances of the abduction."

Lebanese and Hizbullah pressure U.N. not to release video
The Lebanese government and the Hizbullah are pressuring the United Nations not to release the videotape. "The Lebanese authorities regard the showing of this tape as a dangerous precedent which allows the transfer of information from inside Lebanese soil to the Israeli enemy..." said a statement from Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's office.

A Hizbullah statement issued yesterday said that showing the videotape would raise serious questions "about the nature of the U.N. missions and role in south Lebanon as far as relaying information to [Israel]."

Sheikh Muhammad Ra'ad, leader of the Hizbullah's representation in the Lebanese Parliament, called the Israeli demand for the handover of the tape "an attempt by Israel to get the U.N. involved and achieve a prisoner exchange according to Israeli conditions."

UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel told IDF Radio this morning that the information contained on the videotape had been provided to a high-ranking IDF officer a few days after the October kidnapping. While the UNIFIL did not disclose the existence of a videotape at the time, it did "provide all the information in detail to the Israeli army. So, whatever the tape showed us, we shared that information," Goksel said.
Haim Avraham, the father of Benny Avraham, one of the soldiers kidnapped by the Hizbullah, claimed this morning that the United Nations has a second videotape, and this tape could contain footage that would shed light on the fate of his son and the other captives.

A report in Yediot Aharonot this morning stated the belief by some security officials that UNIFIL soldiers may have cooperated with the Hizbullah. According to the report, the U.N. investigated, shortly after the abduction, the suspicion that Indian soldiers in UNIFIL knew of the Hizbullah's intentions to kidnap IDF soldiers and did nothing to prevent the event.

Goksel, in his interview on IDF Radio, admitted that the UN contingent had gotten used to seeing Hizbullah soldiers in the area of the kidnapping in the days that preceded the event, but claimed that the IDF also was well aware of their presence.

Arab media reports today echoed the Hizbullah claim that demands for the release of the U.N. videotape are an Israeli plot to put pressure on the United Nations and connected with calls for an international force to monitor Israeli and Palestinian forces in the West Bank. The London-based Al-Hayat quotes an unnamed source as saying this was Israel's way of preventing the stationing of an international peacekeeping force in the territories.

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