U.N.: Syria Has Left Lebanon

A U.N. military team on Monday verified the pullout of all Syrian troops from Lebanon but said it couldn't be certain all intelligence operatives had left the country.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Terje Roed Larsen, his special envoy on the Lebanon-Syria issue, called the results positive. But the team's report wasn't the clear-cut statement Syria had hoped for.

A report by the U.N. team said all the locations formerly used by Syria's military intelligence apparatus were empty, and it therefore concluded "to the best of its ability, that no Syrian military intelligence personnel remain in Lebanon in known locations or in military uniform."

"But the team has been unable to conclude with certainty that all the intelligence apparatus has been withdrawn," the report said, stressing that "intelligence activities are by nature often clandestine."

Before the report was released, Annan told reporters that the U.N. team "verified all the withdrawal, including the border area." But he said there is still a question about one border area, Deir Al Ashayr, which has not been demarcated and where a Syrian battalion was still deployed.

The U.N. team said there is no clear demarcation of the Lebanon-Syria border. The status of the Syrian battalion will be clarified once the two governments conclude a border agreement that will determine whether Deir Al Ashayr is part of Lebanon or Syria, it said.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution last Sept. 2 calling on Syria to withdraw all its troops and intelligence operatives from Lebanon. But it was the Feb. 14 assassination of Lebanon's former anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that spurred the Syrians to leave.

The assassination caused an uproar in Lebanon, sparking massive anti-Syrian street protests that forced the pro-Syrian Beirut government to resign. The Lebanese opposition claimed Syria orchestrated the killing and demanded Damascus end its interference in Lebanese politics and withdraw its thousands of troops from the country.

Syria denies any involvement in Hariri's assassination, and no one has yet been charged. The United Nations is sending an independent commission to investigate the killing.

Syria's last soldier in Lebanon walked across the border April 26, ending a 29-year military presence that was the key to Damascus' control of Lebanon. Syria sent troops to its smaller neighbor in 1976 to help quell what was then a year-old civil war but the troops remained after the war ended in 1990.

The United Nations dispatched a team led by Senegalese Brig. Gen. Mouhamadou Kandji, the deputy military adviser for the U.N. peacekeeping department, to verify the withdrawal. It began checking on May 1 and spent 10 days visiting locations where Syrian troops and intelligence officials had been based.

"After traveling more than 1,500 kilometers in Lebanon and visiting 133 former Syrian troops and military intelligence positions, the team found no Syrian military forces, assets or intelligence apparatus in Lebanese territory, with the exception of one Syrian battalion deployed near Deir Al Ashayr," the U.N. team reported.

The team said it encountered numerous earthworks and defenses formerly used by the Syrian forces, particularly in the Bekaa valley, and in some cases found underground bunkers and troop trenches. It recommended that Lebanese authorities dismantle any of these defense "that are assessed to pose a risk to Lebanese civilians."

The team did not recommend a further verification mission at this stage, saying a new team would only retrace its steps "and would still be unable to verify the complete withdrawal of clandestine intelligence apparatus."

Citing the "positive reports," Annan said, "lots of progress has been made and I think the U.N. should be proud about this."

"In the year 2000, we worked with the Lebanese and the Israelis to see to the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and today it is the Syrian troops that have been withdrawn and so in principles Lebanon should be free of all foreign forces today."