EXCAVATORS dug a mass grave in the south Lebanon village of Qana yesterday for the more than 100 Lebanese refugees massacred by Israeli shelling last week.
The grave, measuring 15 by 20 metres, is next to the UN base where the refugees were killed by five Israeli heavy artillery shells, which exploded among them on April 18th.
A few Fijian UN peacekeeping soldiers watched as the excavators worked about 10 metres from the perimeter of their base.
"We want the grave to be here to remind the United Nations always about our people," said Mr Hassan Fetouni, who is in charge of the operation.
Mr Fetouni said the funeral would be held after Israel ends its now 13 day old air, land and sea bombardment of south Lebanon, in which 155 people have been killed and hundreds wounded.
Mr Nasri Abu Dib (37) was driving one of the two excavators with tears streaming down his cheeks. He said none of the victims was his neighbour or relative. "But I count them all as my parents, my children and my family."
Robert Fisk reports from Tyre:
In an unprecedented exchange, the UN commander in southern Lebanon yesterday accused his Israeli opposite number of trying to justify future Qana style massacres by claiming that Hizbullah guerrillas are still using UN bases for cover to fire Katyusha rockets into Galilee.
Gen Stanislaw Wozniak, the Polish commander of Unifil, wrote in a letter to the Israeli military command that the Israeli assertion was a transparent effort to justify further tragedies, should they occur, as a result of continuing random [Israeli] shelling of Unifil areas of operations".
In a claim which stunned UN personnel in southern Lebanon yesterday, Israel stated that United Nations peacekeepers were irresponsible in giving sanctuary to the refugees while not preventing, Katyusha attacks launched from near their bases.
The allegation apparently prompted the suspicion that the Israelis wished Unifil to expel the 5,000 refugees taking sanctuary in UN posts and thus fulfil Israel's orders to them to leave their, homes.
"Unifil has a moral and legal obligation to offer humanitarian assistance to the people living in its area under incredibly difficult circumstances, Gen Wozniak retorted. "Ii responsibility is not trying to protect these innocent non combatants, but firing at them.
Mr Timur Goksel, the Unifil spokesman, added: "The armed elements [Hizbullah] are local people who make use of their intimate knowledge of the terrain and who move in small, mobile teams. They make sure that they are not seen from UN posts. At times there is nobody around when the rockets are fired because of the use of timers."