Lebanese security forces moved before dawn yesterday into Israel's former occupation zone along the border. Villagers stayed awake throughout the night to welcome the jeeps and lorry loads of lightly armed men.
The force comprised 500 men from army military police and and anti-terrorist units and 500 from the gendarmerie. It bolstered the 500 policemen sent to the south soon after Israel withdrew on May 24th and began taking over from irregulars of the Islamist Hizbullah movement and secular groups which have helped keep order for the past 2 1/2 months.
Lebanon's Interior Minister, Mr Michel Murr, said there would be no armed guerrillas once the security forces were deployed. Yesterday the UN spokesman, Mr Timor Goksel, told The Irish Times the militiamen "have become invisible".
The bulk of the Lebanese force was dispatched to the former army barracks in the eastern town of Merjayoun which served as the main base of Israel's client, South Lebanon Army militia, for nearly 25 years. The rest of the security men are based at Bint Jbeil in the western sector of the zone and other main towns.
The Lebanese army will not take up positions along the redelineated frontier. This, Beirut claims, is the task of the UN Interim Force (Unifil) which occupied 17 new positions along the frontier on Saturday and expects to move into another 11 posts in coming days. Mr Goksel said 400 troops out of 5,500 peacekeepers are currently stationed permanently on the border.
The Lebanese government has said it would not send its forces to the frontier "to guard Israel" until the two countries sign a peace treaty which would settle outstanding issues, such as the 350,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon and compensation for Lebanon's losses due to Israeli military actions as well as the fate of the Syrian Golan occupied by Israel since 1967.
Tensions persist at the former Fatima Gate crossing where civilians on the Lebanese side of the line continue to hurl missiles at Israeli troops and farm labourers just across the frontier.
