UN building fence on Lebanese border
UN peacekeepers in
"UNIFIL soldiers began laying the barbed-wire fence in the area north of the (border)
A spokesman for the village, Najib Hatib, said that residents did not know what works where being done in the northern part of Ghajar but noted that they were being conducted near the local stream. "There are pumps there that provide water to all the residents and we object to this attempt to prevent us from reaching them and maintaining them. We are not politicians and we have no intention of getting into the reasons that led to the construction of the fence.
We demand of the Israeli regime, the UN and the Lebanese government to take us into consideration and understand that this water is our source of life. If our access to the pumps is blocked, a large amount of our water supply will dry out, he said.
The decision to set up the barrier was made on April 2 at a meeting between UNIFIL commander General Claudio Graziano and officials from Lebanese and Israeli armies, Bouziane said.
The three parties agreed that UNIFIL would set up the barrier north of Ghajar "in order to prevent violations of the Blue Line," Garziano had said then.
"The prevention of drug trafficking in the area is also one of the goals of the barrier," Bouziane said.
UNIFIL, which was created in 1978 after an Israeli invasion of southern