S/PV.1062 Security Council

1 have been advisedthat inthis instance, and wiUlout creaiing any precedent for the future, the representative of theSovietUnioniswilling to forego the consecutive interpretation into Englis~ and French of the statement he has justmade. If there is no objection, we will proceed accordingly. 41. May 1 caU the attention of the' members of the Council to dôcument S/5410/Rev.1 whichhasjustbeen distributed and which COIltaînS the amendments that werè orallyintroducad by therepresentative of Morocco to the draft resolution of·the UnitedKingdom and the United States. - 42. 1 now:callon thenext speaker on my list, the represe~tativeof Israel.

1 think itmightbehelpfulto the Council if -1madesomeimmediate comments on the list of proposed amendments whÎchhavejustbeensubmitted in thename of the delegationofMorocco. 44. Withregard, to the first proposedamendment, 1 cano unders.tand, that to,condemna murder is unpalatable tO,thecountryfrQm which the murderers came; llu.t in th~ lightof theevidence as to what happened, it would l:>e regrettable, if the Çouncil did not use plain language abôut,what was delibfilrate1y and incoldb1ood (ione at Almagor.. Murder ls. murder, and if ever,the ward "want()Il" \Vas appropriate, it is hel:"e. 45. What were thecircüms~Ces?TJ1ere isno p1ea that this wasan act ofself-defence. Thereis no, ,retaliation,no provocation, no ,armed clash. ,ne> kiUing in the heat of ange!', no acciâental kil1ing, no military advantage t()begained,noteven robbery. T~is wasa plann~ assassination ofenti:re1yinn0centpeople, perpetr~l.t~ ina neighbouringcountryfor the li!akeof gain~ ing s()me inte~nalor .ext~rna1politica1advantage. 46. Against thebackgtoUIld ofrising tensiononthat borcIer, tms ~reme1;yprovocatiyeactmaywell have Pl'ec.~pitated ,a, major crisis,in which,' nQt. two, ,but thousands of, Jives mp.y havebeen involved.SUcll a calamit;y wali!-averted l:>ythe greatseif-restraint()fthe IsraelpeoPleandits, Government whichhas come to this Councilfor redress. " 47. "F()r the Cquncil to dowhattherepre$entative()f MorClcco nowasksitt()do.andtocover over tJ1~ nature .Qi titis, ~ctby apoliteex.P:res,sion 0+ regz:etfortwo deaths, would ,not," Irespeçtful1y SUbIIl.it, çonstitute 49. Thesecondinference which the representàtiveof Morocco did not., 1 am gladto say, presume to Pl.lt into words, ,is that there wâs no armed groupcoming from Syriaand thattherefore thetwofarmers mayhave béen murdered by theirown fellow settlers whorUShed to the scene. Such an inference needs, no commènt from me. 50. ~ criticism of paragraph 2as it now stands is that its language,should be as;restraiIled and'-guarded asft actuliUyis,when one hàsregardto the undo\lbted cuIpabllity of SYria for thekillings carried outby its soldiers. ' ' , ,', '. '. 51. \Vith regard toparagraph3, therepresentative of Morocco hasSluggeSlted thefollowing \Vordi,ng: "Notes with '. regretthat ~ereportof the Chief of Staff'oftheUnitedNationSlTruceSuPervisionOrganization mentions,the presence of an~oured vehiolEl' used' to transpOrt personnel to the'Israeldefence zoné in, violation of' the GeneralArmistice'Agreement." ' 52, "The'most distmctive feafure oftheChiefof8taff's report"on'this -incidentis' that it establishes'that the e~change'of' fire 'wasinitiatèd fromSyr~anpositions acrosSl the border., That the Counci1will find in the doèUinent which-has the statementsof tWo United Nationsmilitary observ~rsstationeda.tobservationposts Bravoan<i Cfu!.rlie onthat date. thatisthe observation posts iIi the vlcinity. The s~tementofthe Unite<i Na. tions officer on duty at OP Charliereads: . ' , "Wheiii was'()bservingtowardthe Dardarafarm. firefrom,light:machiIleguns ',and rifl~sstartedfrom tl1eSyrian'Positic:i~splaeedat 400 Metres northeâst of0Pc·Charlie.Time was 1013. 1ss,\Vone Israel bulld9zerworkihg inthefit}lds, ~ .;1'he bùlldo~e~seemed to·be'tbe'targe~of'theSyria.nfirè,n.tS;154017Add:4, .part B:l ., " '..' ,. " ,', , '.' ; .. ']~eptherobservati(m.postnôted'thattl)e:t'ewere three t;ra()toJ;san!:ta ,bulI4ozel'\VorJ.ting in the,fielçls atthe 53. 1 would mention here that our armed forces and police are under standinginstruc,ti<?ns notta retu...-nthe incessant Syrianfiring unless it is essential for selfprotection or for rescue work. In anothèr annexto the Chief of Staff's report, wlùch lists something like twenty-five Israelcomplaintsof Syrian firings within a matterofafewweeks, therear'èno Syrian Clomplaints of Israel firing. 1 thinkthatspeaksforitself as to what is going on. ln those few cases where~e observation posts of the United Nations in the area were able actually to observè this firing, itis notedin the report that this firing was started from the Syrian sidethat no fire was' returned from the Israelside. 54. It is a c.ontinual and increasingly dangerous practice, indulged in by the Syrian forces along the border, of opening fire at Israel civilians carrying on their daUy"wol"k, and whathappened in the Ashmura areS. on 20 August was the most recent and vivid case in point. "The measures which General Hull wishes to work out with tlleparties to relaxtensionand the cease fire of which,:tb.e Secretary-deneralhas informedthe , Council, will be gravely jeopardized if these Syrian miljtary positions continue topresent Syrianclaims through the barrels oftheir guns. 55. l have one fuiother comment onthis particular incident,this exchange,of fire. Therewere,no Israel' mil~taryforcesand no Israel military vehicles in the area at aU. There was apolicevehiclewhich is caUed by the impressive name of an armoured personnel carrier, but is in fact a smaUflat opencarseating fourpersons, ,equipped with half tracks to cover rough ground, andsome steel plating aroundthe sides to afford partial protection against the bullets to which the police n.ear theborder areconstantly exposed. This type of vehicle is in regular use in the border areas by 0\11" police. 56. Ti!J,é' évidence shows that this particular vehicle m~y havé bri~fly entered the defensive" zone during the exchange of fire to try and extricate farmers pinned down by ,the fire;, and the police lie.utenant descriped to the.,l,Tnited Nations investigators that he had()rder~d upthisvehicle to provide coveringfire, and howhe, himself had, taken extremely hazardous personal. action in order to bring'the tractors out of the field llnder Syrian fire. 57., It,would be' a little ,bit far-fetched, Isuggest; foraS~curityCOllncil resolution tonote ,sucha local a,cti()n by our police post in a case when the civilians for, wb.()m theywererpsponsible hadoome wider fire fromSyrian a,rmy positions. If tb.~Councilshould exp:l-'ess its regret,apoutanything ,at ali, surelyitshould beapouttb.is practiceofshooting which hasplagued tp.e border nowfor>a1011g time,andwhichthe$ecreta,ry-General and GerieralBull andthe Cha.irmanofthe Mixèd ArIIlistice CommissionandeveryUnited Nations' 58. 1 can tell the Council that only two weeks ago 1 bappened personaUy to be present at a meeting which took place between General Bull and the PrimeMinister of Israel when this matter was discussed. General Bull assured the Prime Minister that he had obtained assurances from the Syrians that this practice would stop, that·there would be no more shooting, and that if they had any complaints about cultivation or anything else, these complaintswould be submitted to the nearest United Nations post. 1 am sorry to tell the Couneil that not only was that assurance broken the very next day, but last night there was more firing from the same Syrian positions in the sarne Dardara area upon our,farms. This happened only a few hours aga. There was no return fire, and anIsrael complaint bas already been submitted about thls to the Mixed Armistice Commission, which complaint fs now under investigation. ' 59. This is the source of the trouble. And' 1wish to repeat in aIl solemnity that if one cannot stop bullets flying flcross the border, it is difficult to seewhat success could be expected from the Chief of Staff and bis personnel in pacifying that border and restoring qui,et to it. Certainly 1 am sure that the Secretary- General '\"'m be very much partqrbed to know that al.. ready there has been EL lnolatio~ of the cease.,.fire , which was obtained very l.'E.\(lently. 60. tJnder these dircumstandes.....and these' are the facts of the border situation'with which our peopie bave to live from day to day-I would suggest itwould be absurd for the Council to adopt the version of the incident of 20 August which the" representative of Morocco is now asking it to adopt, 1 sugge,st thatit would be a travesty of the realsituationwhich actually exists on the spot and with which the United Nations officiaIs are very unhappily aware. 61. As regards the fO\lrth suggested amendment, admitted.ly the question of the working of the Mixed Armistice Commission is a difficultand ëontroversial one. It is over-simplified and incorrect tosaythat the Commission is not operatin,g and that Israel is boycotting it. Nearly aH the nln'mal functions and proce.. dures within theframework of· the Mixed Armistice Commission are in fact in operation on a day-to....day basis with the co-operation of Israel. 62. 1 think that themembel's oftheCOWlcil, in reading the· report submitted by the Secretary-General, may have noticed one conspieuous feature in it-namely, the constant references to complaints submitted by bath sides to the'Mixed Armistice Commission, the investigations which proceed On thos,e complaints,·the ,reports which are submitted on them, the day-tO-day contactbetweenthë Chairman ofthe'Mixed Armistice Commission and the delegates of bothSyriaandIsrael tothat Commission. AU this is functioningfully. The only aspect of the work of the Mixed Armistice Commissi()n which didbreak: downmany years agois that which relates to plenary sessions(>fthe CoDlD1ission.' The.reasonfor,that, 'toputitquite s-imply, is that when the SYx'ianforces in 1949, in terms' 'of the General Agreement, were withdrawn behind theirownborders, and' when some of the areas thattheyhad evacuated wère.subject to' demilitarization restrictions, from 64. 1· do not want to belabour this point. The Council has had the benefit of two very long and one-sided dissertations on the matter from 'the representative of Syria. 1 did not at that time make any effort to clarify our position in this matter because 1 did not regard it as germane to the particular complaints which areat present before the Counci!. 65. If in fact Syrian soldiers. came across theborder .andmurdefed., two Israel civilians, it happens that it . was outsid~ the demilitaI'ized zone, but if it had been Within the deJ;Xlilitarized zone, it would have made no difference. If Israel had accumulated a fleet of fifteen mythical .tanks, which had then latmched an offensive against Syrian positions, it would havebeena violation of the .Armistice Agreement whether it was inside or outside the zone. And if our people are being shot atin some cases·it is within the zone and in some cases it is without the zone~it makes no difference; nobody is ent~t1ed to shoot at them. And as far as the kidnapopm..g incident is concerned, this was not withinthe demilitarized zone anyway, butonceagain, 1say, if it had been withinthe zone it would have made it no better. 66. 1 therefore regarded the very lengthy views put before the Council on this matterpythe representative of Syria.as being aredherringtodistract the attentiC:Ll of the Council from the complaint before it, to which the representative of Syria had no adequate answer. 67. Last year, after the Nuqueib incident, 1putbefore the Council at the 1002nd meeting an analysis of the two related problems of the demilitarized zone and the Mixed Armistice Commission. For members of the Council who wish to refer to that, the reference is in the official record of that meeting. 68. AH 1 am trying to suggest at this moment is that this is at least a very fundamental,difficult and controversial matter. We have tried in the past,· together with the Chief of Staff, to work out some forIllilula whereby the Commission could meetwithout getting itself· involved in this particulardifficulty.Weare perfectlywilling to discuss the matter again fullywith General Bull in accordance with the g'hneral request to .GeneralBulH in the draft resolution to try to work out with the parties the measures towhichhe referred in .his report and qf which this wasone. The Council is not at this point called upon to study and adjudicate upon it-and, if the Council did wish to do so, it would requirea greatdeal more careful studyintothe history of thisproblem and into its juridical aspects than is at present before the CoUDcil. 1would therefore urge the Council not simply toconsider this bald, highly over- 70. Ml'. SIDI BABA (MoroQco) (translated, from Fr'ench): I should like to express my hea:l'tfeItthanks to the representative of the United States'of,America for acquiescing in theproposaU made yesterday.We believe that time is needed to study not only the draft resolution but the aïnendments ,submitted thisafter... noon. Hisgesture is oneofunderstan.ding, asmydele.. gationnotes with particular gratification. 70. tout' (le sition délai là ments çOIIlP:réheJ:lSion. particulière, satisfa.ctton 7i.p~pï{]iSII>EffT'(traduitde iîlforIllEl,rlè. issue, des. que. bientÔt ce Ilsèmbleque meilibres.ciuCqnseil"soiel1td'accord 'notre

May IinforIll the CouncU that, in anticipation ()f this amicableoutcomeofdiscussions betwéen the represéntatives of the United States aI!tl Morocco, and because we are moving towarci anew month, in which the Presiclency of,the Councilwill be _ taken over bythe representativeofthe Philippines, I have beenin consultation with the representativeofthe Philippines and alsowithother m~mbersofthe èQunci~, and I understand that it is agreeable tothe new Presi~. dent as well as ~otheothermembers ofthe,CoUIlcil,c that' the next meeting take pilace on. Tues!Ïay, at 3. p.m; , . ." o. • •... "•.. _. ;'_._"-._ 72. In that connexion, I should.also like to express a, word of gratitude to one of the permaI!ent membersQf the Council for whom this,caused great inconvenience but who feIt that the, importance of the matter came before his personal desires and convenience. 72. A, arrangement l'iIllportance' considérations'de'cOllvenance 73.J~ <le obse'rvatfQns. 73. I now calI on the representative ofSyria" Who has asked for the floor to make a few brief observations. 74'. vous hi 74. Ml'. ,TARAZl(Syria) (translatéd fromFrench): Thank yeu, Ml'. President, for giving me the floor. Since this afternoon we have hea.rdtherepreséntative . of Morocco submittinghisamendments tothejointdraft resolution, we have heard the representativeof, the SoViet Union, Ml'. Fedoreilko, makinga splendid state.., ment to the COUncil, andtherepreséntative ofthe IsraEll authoritieshas made certain comments, I feItitmy dutYto request a few minutes of the Council's Ume." apr~s-IllIdi, sesaznendements'auprojet avons. entendu" le 'représentant,' dé }'Unionsoviétique, M.Fedoreriko, le certaines solliciter 75., Uni appréciation luti?n. illterprétation, 76. je 75. The UnitedStates and UnitedKingdom representatives and others who have followed their lead in eval- 'Uating the facts have, in my opinion, misinterpreted the draft resolution which is now beforethe Council., 76. 1 shall not go into details sinCë.T haye ,already stated my views on thismatter;Ishouldliké,l~pyvever, '\ .•.."On ..'2i .Atigust 1963.atl~30•.th~'di1lèfof'f)t$ff'6f . UN'l'SOhad a meetblg withM-r: flalahEdâihê Bitar. President. of .th\~ CoUncll'ôfMinistersandSyrian. Minister of For(:!gn Affairs.Thé meetiDg t()Okplace 'atMr. Bitar'sJl~equest.Refërriiîgtothesboriting incident'on 'l9-Au'gust lnthe'A;lmagoral'ea,:Mr.··Bitar ·statéd thatthe Government ofIsraelanhounced'tbat t\\'o soldiers hâdbeenkiUed; 'l'!'wièe inthec.Onversation thePdmeMinister'assùredAheChiefof Staff that 8yr-lanshadnotkilled'soldiersanywhere:c=and thatthey had had nothingtodowiththe shootingof the$e twp 801âle1's." ,. . . . , . These are''declarations of.pe;ic~, nQt:decluatibns Clf Wlir. l,offe1'.them tq thereprèsèntativesoftÎlePlUlip.:. pines, Glllma. Brazit,: an(lVénèzuela,whO àaidthatthey hadexèellent relàtions~ithSyri~: ;.'7' " ,.0 77, Id9"'notintend,to'âIlâlysethestatemèntmadè by - th",rep~esentative of thelsraelauthorities,but 1 ain very gratefultohimfor ht:lViIlghelpednie this a#e~ ,noon. lhadsaidthattheIsraelauth!)ri~iesre~edto' tâke part-in 8.tly proce'èdingt:! of the Mbtec:l'Armistice Commissionrelati.ng tothedeIIlilit~izèd~zone.·H~has now stated openly a.nd puh!ic!y,thatthisissO.His statEfmenti~ ~ cl)~lengetCIthe8eQu,J;ltyQouncfJ. The representatives. 6f]s~ael, hll.Vè. 9~JlDiade:~i)pilar state~ents. The Sec111"ityCQ),1,ncitJt8;~!ley:eraQt/àdupon th . '.. ", " . ',.. '. em,. 78. c Th,edem1litarize4,zo~è iscovet:~ti1>Y thep:tovi"" sions ofi;he AI·ll}.istice.t\gteement.Syi;ià~~notat­ tempte<t tCI§8C1n"e ap..y,IIli1\ttll.Wa«:lvanta~s~inQe .the conclUsion. and s~gniQg·oftheA~~tice·A~eelllent.:It 1s the Israel authorities whicl1.hlLyetried to l:,lecure mUitary adv;ania~s.hi, 'viola~oh of·thèproVisions of article.n of the.Armistice AgreeInent. ' 79. j~houldlfke'tÎ1ispo~t tob'e nw.tll~cléar~sothat . whenthememb~rs oftheSectmityC()UncP-,cometo vote on·the .amendII),ents.or,onthedràttr~soluti()n.sl.lbInittèd by the UnitedJ{ingtl~I#abdtlïe:Yllited StatE.'Sl. th~will . be.fully cognizant of thftil statementpytherepresenta.... tive of the Israelautho1'ities; . " SO. 1. am sorry to have1:()saythat ~y bemgherèin the Secur1ty Council reminds me of th~dayswhenI practised llLw;inthose ~aY$.·howeve~,lwQuld 1)e appeanrJg be~o~e lL·courtofÎaW,and:Hg~ew~t,;,tlje judgel:,l whQ .. pronoun9ed,juqgem~nt didsoPialJ.coll"': scienceandwerën()t)~Q~rJn§tructi()ntil~l'hrQUgI), the iIltroductiiQJl' ,of .. a .rl:é~.;resol,ut~()n .of ,tb1§ "kinti" tb.e s'ecurity C.ouncili§Jlqvldiryjl!,g to;pas~,j:gdgem.enta8.lL court.of law.butis .notallowJgg me topr()ceedas I woUld1f,rwerebefore,a.c.oQr,;to:f1aw. 0, • ' • ' • , "- , - -" - '- - ". - . ,,- • . '" , ," - '-:y;~" .'-