UN praises Lebanon for efforts to recover journalist Collett”s body
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon thanked British and Lebanese authorities Monday for helping uncover and identify the remains of a British journalist killed in Lebanon’s Civil War. Alec Collett, a reporter working for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), disappeared in Lebanon in 1985.
In a statement, Ban said he “appreciates the role played by the relevant authorities in the United Kingdom and in Lebanon to resolve this matter after so many years.
“Although he is saddened by Alec Collett’s death, he hopes that the actions taken to find his remains can provide a measure of comfort to his loved ones,” the statement added.
Collett’s body was found in the Bekaa Valley by a team made up of military specialists and British intelligence agents dispatched to the region to search for his remains.
Britain’s embassy in Lebanon said Monday that DNA analysis confirmed that the body recovered by the team was Collett’s.
Collett was on an UN mission in a refugee camp near Beirut airport when he went missing in 1985 and was assumed to be dead by the following year.
A Palestinian splinter group known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council of Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of Collett in response to US air raids on Libya.