The attack on Ghanaian soldiers serving under United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon came as a shock to us knowing that they would be spared the fallout from the hostilities between Israel and the Hezbollah militias which have gathered a feverish momentum in the past week or so.
Confined within the buffer zone as they are, there is no reason why they should come under a missile attack. Had the attack originated from small arms fire, we could have pointed at stray rounds coming their way, not so when we are talking about missiles. This should be the first time in the history of Ghana Battalion (GHANBATT) peacekeeping missions that our troops would come under missile fire.
Never did we envisage that our compatriots risking their lives to ensure international peace in this conflict zone are going to come in harm’s way the way they have, which has left two of them critically injured and transferred to a Level One medical facility.
Not that we did not know that they would come within the axis of fire of the belligerents, we expected that the conventions of war would apply to them, as they are United Nations (UN) peacekeepers only carrying out peacekeeping assignment.
The source of the missile for now remains speculative, although it is highly probable that the Israelis could be responsible.
We appreciate the diplomacy applied by the Foreign Affairs Ministry when in their protest letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres they avoided pointing fingers at the Jewish country.
Under the fog of war, as the expression goes, things do go wrong and unintended outcomes do occur sometimes.
We join the Foreign Affairs Ministry in demanding a transparent and impartial enquiry into the attack which led to the serious injuring of two of our soldiers.
We ask that the outcome of such an enquiry be impartially considered to obviate a future recurrence.
We demand that the rules of engagement during such hostilities be respected so we do not have to repeat such a commentary again. Conventions of war must be adhered to by belligerents lest such actors are cited for war crimes and sanctioned accordingly after hostilities.
So many years after the end of WWII, survivors responsible for the atrocities which constituted war crimes were brought to book and charged.
Let actors not think that they would not be found; they cannot hide indefinitely who commit such crimes.
A few days ago, over a hundred school girls were murdered when a missile dropped close to their school.
This obvious war crime, although yet to be designated as such by the recognisable bodies, it nonetheless bears all the hallmarks of such a criminality.
Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press on for answers from the UN.
