UN shifts toward aid projects in Lebanon

Two weeks ago, a jeep full of Spanish soldiers was mobbed by angry residents of one village just north of UNIFIL's area of deployment. UNIFIL says the soldiers were checking alternative convoy supply routes between Beirut and the south, while locals accused them of spying on Hizbullah.

The Spanish recently encountered a more serious threat, however. In December, suspected Hizbullah fighters planted several bombs against one of its patrols, which had discovered an abandoned Hizbullah position with stockpiled mortar shells and rockets. The ordnance had been brought into the area before last summer's war, but the local Hizbullah commander apparently resented the intrusive searches.

The area was formerly used by Hizbullah to launch attacks into the Shebaa Farms, an Israeli-occupied mountainside claimed by Lebanon. The trip-wire detonated bombs, all constructed from Israeli-made components, were planted by "experts with a lot of technical experience," an internal UNIFIL report on the incident said.

"This situation suggests a change in the threat that UNIFIL may have to face," the report said.

However, according to a UN officer, UNIFIL has been assured by Hizbullah leaders that there would be no repetition and that the local commander had been acting unilaterally and was reprimanded. Hizbullah has adopted a low profile in the district since the war. Its fighters have abandoned positions along the Blue Line, the UN name for Lebanon's 70-mile southern border.

"In the UNIFIL area, we have seen no evidence of movement of arms into the area," Strugar says.

However, on Monday the Israeli army said it had destroyed five linked bombs lying close to the border fence, claiming that they were planted by Hizbullah over the weekend. Hizbullah said they were from before the war, while UNIFIL said it was impossible to tell one way or the other.

But Hizbullah officials say that they are concentrating efforts on the political battle with the Lebanese government and have no plans for an imminent resumption of hostilities against Israel.

"We have no specific decision now to take action, but in the future if Israel continues the occupation [of the Shebaa Farms], other options might be available," says Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hizbullah's deputy leader.

Last week, the command of UNIFIL changed hands when French Gen. Alain Pellegrini handed over to his successor, Italian Gen. Claudio Grazziano, in a colorful military ceremony at the force's headquarters in Naqoura.

Even as the two generals delivered speeches and shook hands before an audience of military officers and diplomats, Hizbullah flags and pictures of "martyrs" killed during last summer's war were going up all along the border, a subtle message to Israel that the Shiite fighters are not going away.

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