Tekoah Charges Syria, Egypt with Failure to Provide Pow Lists

Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah submitted two letters to Secretary General Kurt Waldheim today, one of them charging Syria and Egypt with failure to supply prisoner-of-war lists in violation of the Geneva Convention and the other charging that armed terrorist attacks “from Lebanese territory against civilian inhabited localities in Israel are continuing unabated.”

An annex appended to Tekoah’s letter contained a chronological list of 35 terrorist attacks from Lebanese territory from 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 to 3:05 a.m. Oct. 24. The targets of the attacks were the Israeli settlements and towns of Shlomi, Manera, Kiryat Shemona, Kfar Szold, Metulla, Misgav Am, Har Dov, Ein Zeitim, Sasa, Safad, Kfar Giladi, Zar’lt, Biriya, Margaliyot, Kfar Yasif, Yaron, Abassiya and Baram.

“These murderous operations against the civilian population of Israel are conducted in coordination with the war of aggression waged by Syria against Israel,” Tekoah wrote. He charged Lebanese complicity in the attacks, observing that on Oct. 16 a terrorist delegation was received by the Lebanese Prime Minister in Beirut and thanked the Lebanese government for its support of their activities. “In view of the gravity of these developments, it is to be stressed once again that Lebanon must bear full responsibility for this situation and all its consequences,” Tekoah wrote.

The Israeli envoy noted in his POW letter that under the Geneva Convention “every party to the conflict is obliged to give the international committee of the Red Cross without delay all the information set out in that Convention regarding any prisoner of war who has fallen into its power.” Israel has been observing these provisions he said. Tekoah wrote that “no information whatsoever” has been received from Syria and that Egypt has only submitted incomplete, unsatisfactory and garbled lists of Israeli war prisoners.

“The representatives in Israel of the International Committee of the Red Cross regularly visit the Arab prisoners of war, both those in camps and also the wounded and sick in hospitals,” Tekoah stated. “So far, the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Egypt and Syria have not been allowed by the Egyptian and Syrian authorities to visit any Israeli prisoners, with the sole exception of the six men hospitalized in Egypt. The government of Israel strongly protests against this inhumane attitude of the governments of Egypt and Syria which constitutes a flagrant violation of the provisions of the Geneva Convention of 1949.” Tekoah asked that both letters be circulated as official documents of the General Assembly and the Security Council.