The UN will publish today the results of its internal investigation on the withholding a UNIFIL video tape which documents the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers on the Lebanese border in October, 2000. Israeli officials were infuriated when after months of inquiry, the UN finally admitted that it was in possession of such a video. The UN investigative committee was also mandated to probe the complicity of Indian UNIFIL soldiers in the kidnapping. The committee questioned UNIFIL soldiers and commanders who were serving in southern Lebanon at the time.
Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg and the families of Israelis kidnapped in Lebanon met with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and four U.S. senators on Wednesday. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, said, “This is an issue that doesn\'t have anything to do with events in Israel. It has everything to do with the treatment of people who are prisoners.” Burg said that the Thursday meeting is the start of a worldwide campaign to increase international pressure to obtain the release of the kidnapped persons. According to Burg, the UN itself should be a target of financial and political pressure in the matter of the hostages, since “it has played a hostile role in the whole affair.”
Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg and the families of Israelis kidnapped in Lebanon met with Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and four U.S. senators on Wednesday. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, said, “This is an issue that doesn\'t have anything to do with events in Israel. It has everything to do with the treatment of people who are prisoners.” Burg said that the Thursday meeting is the start of a worldwide campaign to increase international pressure to obtain the release of the kidnapped persons. According to Burg, the UN itself should be a target of financial and political pressure in the matter of the hostages, since “it has played a hostile role in the whole affair.”