Israel provides U.N. maps of minefields

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Israel on Monday handed over maps of minefields it laid in southern Lebanon during its nearly two-decade occupation, meeting a key requirement of the U.N. cease-fire resolution that ended this summer’s war with Hezbollah militants, a U.N. statement said.

Disclosing the locations of several hundred thousand mines that were laid during Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon has been one of the main demands of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israel has provided maps twice before – following the 2000 withdrawal of the border zone and in 2004 as part of a prisoner swap with Hezbollah. But both the Lebanese government and Hezbollah repeatedly demanded that Israel give full disclosure on the matter.

Israel’s army gave the maps to peacekeepers Monday during a meeting of Lebanese, Israeli and U.N. generals at the headquarters of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon in the border town of Naqoura. UNIFIL, in turn, handed over the maps to the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center and the Lebanese army for review.

“The Israelis have said this should cover everything,” said Milos Strugar, senior adviser to the UNIFIL commander.

The U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolution that ended the July 12-Aug. 14 fighting between Israel and Hezbollah called on the Jewish state to provide maps of the minefields.

Cluster bombs dropped by Israel during the fighting present another concern. U.N. experts say up to 1 million unexploded cluster bombs could be in south Lebanon and said Israel has not responded to requests to hand over information about them.

Fourteen people have been killed and about 90 injured from unexploded cluster bombs since the cease-fire, according to the U.N.

Israeli forces completed their pullout from south Lebanon last week, in line with the U.N. resolution. But the Israelis kept control of the Lebanese side of the divided border village of Ghajar.

Israel sealed off the village from Lebanon during this summer’s war. Officials have said withdrawing and freeing access to Ghajar would pose a security risk since the village is partly on Israeli-held land.

Under the U.N. resolution, 15,000 Lebanese troops will control south Lebanon along with up to an equal number of peacekeepers to create a weapons-free zone as deep as 18 miles from the Israeli border. The Lebanese force has deployed in full and peacekeepers’ numbers are at 5,200.