Villagers Insult UNIFIL Peacekeepers Over Road Accident

 

Lebanese Army troops on Tuesday dispersed angry villagers protesting against a traffic accident between U.N. peacekeepers and a school bus in which 10 pupils were injured in south Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

 

The report said Brig. Gen. Charles Shikhani, commander of the Lebanese Army Brigade deployed south of the Litani River, personally presided over efforts by his troops to “contain” anger voiced by villagers over the accident between the bus and an Armored Personnel Carrier operated by Spanish troops of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at the entrance to Dibbine village.

 

However, local reporters who covered the development told Naharnet angry villagers shouted insults and aggressive phrases at the Spanish peacekeepers who were involved in the accident, accusing them of intentionally targeting the school bus.

 

“You are Jews, you are drunken bastards,” the villagers shouted at UNIFIL personnel, according to the reporters.

 

A Dibbine native who spoke Spanish also “poured UNIFIL personnel with what sounded like insults in their own language,” one reporter said.

 

Seven of the injured pupils were treated from minor wounds at Marjayoun government-run hospital. Three

others “suffering fractures and bruises” were admitted to Ragheb Harb hospital in the nearby village of Toul.

The protestors blocked traffic along the road leading to Dibbine for nearly two hours until the army interfered, dispersed the demonstrators and reopened the facility to traffic.