AL-RIYAQ AIRBASE, Lebanon, 27 April 2005 — The last Syrian soldier left Lebanon yesterday for home following a farewell ceremony marking the end of almost three decades of Syrian military presence in the small neighboring country.
Flashing victory signs and shouting national slogans, some 250 soldiers, making the last batch of the Syrian troops in Lebanon, drove in a convoy of ten military buses and cars through the Masna’ crossing point after taking part in the farewell ceremony that was held at this airbase located miles away from the Syrian-Lebanese border.
However, the United Nations insisted that the highly publicized withdrawal did not meet all UN Security Council demands as outlined in Resolution 1559.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday that despite a letter from Damascus stating the “full and complete withdrawal” of its military and intelligence personnel from Lebanon, the Syrian government had not yet ended its political interference in Lebanon.
“As of April 26, 2005, the requirements of Resolution 1559 have not yet been met,” Annan told the 15-nation council in New York.
“There has been no progress in the implementation of other provisions of the resolution,” he said.
A preliminary investigation undertaken by the United Nations showed that the Syrian intelligence apparatus had vacated only “some sites”.
He reported that as of yesterday, it was confirmed that there was some ongoing movement to withdraw Syrian troops from the Bekaa Valley at the Lebanese-Syrian border in conformity with the second phase of the withdrawal.
He said “some member states” and members of the Lebanese opposition had told him that the Syrian military intelligence has taken up “new positions south of Beirut and elsewhere”.
Around 30,000 Syrian citizens, including MPs, businessmen, schoolchildren, and university students, gathered in Jdaidat Yabous on the Syrian side of the border to welcome the returning soldiers and intelligence personnel. They showered soldiers with flowers, waved Syrian flags, danced, and sang national songs before the convoy could shoulder its way toward Damascus.
“We have successfully fulfilled the task of stopping the civil war and bringing stability and security to Lebanon. We will come back very soon as private citizens who got some dear friends and relatives right here,” Brig. Rustom Ghazaleh, who headed the Syrian military intelligence for the past few years, told reporters minutes after attending the ceremony.
— With input from agencies
