Protestors marched to UNIFIL's Indian battalion headquarters, raising the Lebanese flag and banners opposing international calls for Hizbullah's disarmament. One banner read: "The weapons of the resistance are not only for the liberation of the Shebaa Farms , they are also for the protection of Lebanon," with another reading "No to occupation." (Daily Star)

Shebaa residents: The farms are Lebanese
Samer Wehbe | Nabatieh | April 11

Protesters address Annan in pleading letter

Daily Star - Residents of the occupied Shebaa Farms and Arqoub area held a rally in South Lebanon Sunday to decry the United Nations' and international community's failure to recognize the Lebanese identity of the disputed lands. The protest began at the Farouq Mosque in Shebaa under close surveillance from the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces.

Former MP Mounif Khatib, who led the protests, delivered a letter to officials from the Indian battalion proving the farms belonged to Lebanese citizens originally from Shebaa and Kfar Shuba. Addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the letter said that in order to prove the occupied territory's Lebanese identity, someone would have to re-examine the international resolutions and agreements forged following World War I and the establishment of a Lebanese state in 1920.

The 1920 Saint Remo Conference of Allies entrusted France with a mandate over Syria and Lebanon, and Britain with a mandate over Palestine and Mesopotamia.

Since Israeli forces seized 14 farms on the western slopes of Mount Hermon during the 1967 six day war there has been a dispute whether 'Shebaa Farms' lies within Lebanon or Syria. When the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon in early 2000 they continued occupying the farms insisting they were Syrian. Citing the 1923 Anglo-French demarcation and the 1949 Armistice line, the UN has consistently supported Israel's claim. Turks.us reported April 8 that UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen "reiterated that Shibaa Farms belonged to Syria."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Shebaa Farms is in Lebanon, but refuses to submit official documentation until Israel withdraws from the region, and Hizbullah has always stated disarmement is impossible while Israel occupies Lebanon. Negotiations to resovle the issue do not appear likely as of yet. -ww