When Timur Goksel began serving with UNIFIL, he was told by his colleagues that if he could last six months in Lebanon, he could make it anywhere. That initial six-month contract grew into 24 years non-stop service with UNIFIL which is finally coming to a close on Friday.
Having witnessed one invasion of Lebanon, two major Israeli offensives, countless battles, the departure of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the emergence of Hizbullah and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, Goksel says he is now looking forward to a quiet retirement in Lebanon discussing politics with Beirutis on the Corniche and visiting the Wazzani Springs without sparking the interest of the media.
Goksel arrived in Lebanon from Ankara in his native Turkey in February 1979 to serve as press assistant to the year-old peacekeeping force. The southern border district was under the control of Saad Haddad’s Israeli-backed militia, the Army of Free Lebanon. The area to the north of the border enclave was run by the Palestine Liberation Organization and its numerous, often competing, factions. Caught uncomfortably in the middle was the 6,000-strong UNIFIL.
“UNIFIL came here on the promise of cooperation with the local parties. But there was no cooperation from anyone. UNIFIL realized in a very hard way that it had to deal with non-state organizations, mainly the PLO, Lebanese organizations and the Israelis,” Goksel said.
His first task was to get to know all the players in the South. Goksel says he became a “sort of carpetbagger,” talking to anyone that would meet him.
“Saad Haddad hated UNIFIL, he attacked our headquarters in Naqoura twice. I was the only one he would talk to in UNIFIL. He was very temperamental and very emotional, but we got on fine.”
By 1981, a group of Lebanese were approaching UNIFIL, saying they wanted to establish direct contacts rather than using the PLO to carry messages. The group was Amal.
“UNIFIL’s relations with Amal were very good mainly because Imam Musa Sadr had said that we were the “sons of the South. After (Speaker Nabih) Berri took over (Amal), our relations became fantastic. Amal people were in all the villages and I think they appreciated that we were here to help the local people.”
Israel launched its invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982. UNIFIL was impotent in the face of the massive armored juggernaut that advanced swiftly toward Beirut and the Bekaa. For Goksel, the invasion appeared to spell the end of UNIFIL.
“I thought the mission was closing then. But the Security Council instructed us to stay and try and help the local people as best we could. We were all very badly demoralized but it was a good decision by the council.”
Within months of the occupation, the fledgeling Lebanese resistance began to emerge. In the deep south, it was Amal that took the lead. The early resistance operations consisted of bomb attacks and ambushes of Israeli troops. Israel imposed its Iron Fist policy in the mid-1980s in an effort to crush the resistance. During that time, Goksel found himself hosting press trips for Israel-based foreign correspondents to meet the resistance in southern villages. The Israelis granted permission for the reporters to enter Lebanon, mainly because they were curious to learn as much as possible about the emerging Shiite resistance. The Israelis referred to the press trips as “Goksel’s resistance tours.”
“I think the Israelis realized that these tours were the only way they were going to hear what the resistance had to say. We realized that showing the international media South Lebanon was another way of tempering the Israeli Army’s excesses during Iron Fist.”
The Amal-dominated resistance in the South was joined by a new force coming from the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa, taciturn and grim-faced young men. They were the vanguard of Hizbullah.
“Hizbullah’s arrival in the South was a very difficult time. Hizbullah was not from the South and they had no idea who we were. They were very uncom-fortable with our good relations with the local people. We tried making contacts with them, but failed. Amal tried to help but they failed with them too.”
A series of attacks in 1987 by Hizbullah fighters led to the French UNIFIL battalion pulling out of Lebanon and came close to ending UNIFIL’s presence in Lebanon altogether.
The UNIFIL-Hizbullah relationship changed after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah became secretary-general in 1992.
“Nasrallah was from the South and knew UNIFIL. Relations became more correct after that,” Goksel said.
With the end of the civil war and Hizbullah’s consolidation as the leading group resisting the Israeli occupation, Goksel watched as the conflict developed between Hizbullah and the Israeli Army.
“The turning point came in 1992,” he said. “It was the beginning of a fascinating war of wits in terms of technology and tactics. The Israelis tried to fight Hizbullah as a regular army. Then they tried to adopt guerrilla tactics of their own. It took them quite a while to change.”
Throughout those years, Goksel lived in Israel, traveling across the border each day to reach his office in Naqoura. He said he developed a “very courteous and very useful role” with the Israeli military as well as press.
“I used the Israeli media to pass on messages when things were going badly wrong in the South,” he said. “The Israeli Army could have made many mistakes, especially in the late 1990s when things were not going well for them.”
Goksel said the worst day of his 24 years with UNIFIL was on April 18, 1996, midway through Israel”s Grapes of Wrath blitz on the South when artillery shells struck the Fijian UNIFIL battalion headquarters in Qana, killing 107 civilians.
“The Israeli invasion in 1982 was demoralizing but Qana was the only time when I felt my neutrality as a UN officer was impaired. Qana was not a refugee camp, it was our neighborhood and the victims were our friends and neighbors. By the end of that day I had received over 600 phone calls. When I arrived home, there were over 90 cameras waiting for me. It was the singularly most difficult moment for me in Lebanon. But I had to keep my composure as that story had to be told in a proper way.”
By contrast, Goksel’s best day was during the Israeli withdrawal in May three years ago.
“I drove up to the Hamra crossing (on the Tyre-Naqoura road) and drove through it back and forth several times. When no one shot at me, I knew that it was finally all over.”
Goksel says he plans to stay in Lebanon to write and lecture at the American University of Beirut.
“I want to join the nargileh brigade on the Corniche and discuss the problems of Lebanon and the world without worrying about being quoted all the time,” he said. “I am dying to go to Wazzani without having to explain why I’m there. I am very attached to the South and to my staff. I couldn’t have had a better staff to work with.”
Last week, Goksel prepared his last ever news summary, the daily compilation of newspaper articles related to South Lebanon which is dispatched to UNIFIL battalions and other related UN bodies.
At the end of the summary, Goksel wrote: “After 24 years and four months, more than 6,000 of these daily reports, over 8,000 media visitors from all corners of the globe, about 150,000 troops from 16 countries, 2,500 plus helicopter flight hours, some 2 million kilometers of driving on tracks and on what passes as roads, seven close calls including roadside bombs, a couple of suicide attacks and five too-damned-close firings including two with 120mm mortars on my office building, it is time.
“It has been one, long roller-coaster ride, at times hair-raising but definitely memorable. Good luck and goodbye.”