False Witness
Toys aren't us

By Caryn Farber

On the morning of April 3, 1997, as Sydneysiders browsed through the pages of the Sydney Morning Herald, few would have doubted the veracity of a disturbing story on the foreign news pages "Child Loses Her Hand to a Booby-Trapped Doll".

The original report came from the international newsagency Agence France Presse (AFP). AFP reported allegations that Israel had placed booby-trapped toys in the Southern Lebanon security zone targeting young Lebanese children and described exploding plastic toy jeeps and talking dolls that burst into flames when a cord was pulled to activate the speaking mechanism. The reports appeared around the world and dominated headlines in Lebanon for several weeks.

As horrendous as it all sounds, even the most discerning reader would have been reassured of its truth, bearing in mind that the story's source was none other than one of the world's leading international news wire services. Given the prestige and global influence of Agence France Presse, one could easily be excused for accepting their reports at face value.

But a three-month investigation by the Review in France, Israel and Lebanon, has revealed poor journalistic standards, anti-Israeli bias, and inaccurate reporting.

The story opens in a small unknown village in South Lebanon called Deir Aames, situated near the port city of Tyre, about two kilometres from Israel's security zone.

Meet nine-year-old Maryam Ali Bustani, who was seriously injured following an explosion near her home on the outskirts of the village.

The AFP story filed from Beirut quoted Maryam saying, "My brother found the toy while we were picking thyme near our village and offered it to me. It was a big green plastic jeep with six big black wheels." She recalled how she "felt an electric shock before the toy she was holding in her right hand blew up as she reached her family home".

The treating surgeon, Dr. Jawad Najm of the small Najm Hospital in Tyre told The Review during a half hour telephone interview from Lebanon that Maryam sustained serious injuries to her right hand, stomach and legs and underwent surgery many times, spending more than twenty-five days in hospital.

"We were forced to amputate part of her right hand immediately due to the crushing wound and it was difficult to reach the nerves and the tendons which had been severed. She has had to have a lot of physiotherapy to give her use of the three fingers remaining in her hand."

Dr. Mohammad Lakkis, who treated Maryam upon arrival at the hospital , said that she was lucky to be alive and that many others who have been in her condition have not survived.

The AFP report said "Maryam's family and Lebanese officials say she is a victim of a cynical Israeli strategy that litters south Lebanon with booby-trapped devices. The charge is vehemently denied by Israel."

Later on in the piece, the AFP journalist stated that "The Lebanese army regularly warns residents of the region about Ôsuspect objects' which it says have been dropped by Israeli aircraft, particularly since the July 1993 and April 1996 Israeli offensives in South Lebanon... Lebanese guerillas fighting a resistance war against Israel's occupation of the buffer zone in south Lebanon say they have found six booby trapped objects in the past year." The article then quoted an anonymous Hezbollah source who described the devices as "a golden egg; fluorescent yellow cones; a Snoopy dog; and a doll that speaks and explodes when the cord is pulled."

The allegation that Israel drops toys with explosive devices in them was corroborated by an anonymous UN source in Lebanon. "A UNIFIL officer informed AFP that all those objects were mainly dispersed by helicopters, that can either be a toy or have the shape of a plain rock", AFP added that "only the Israeli air force are permitted to fly into the zone".

There was no doubt that Maryam Ali Bustani had been injured by an explosive device of some sort. But had that device been an Israeli bomb planted in a toy and designed to terrorise the civilian population of Lebanon as the AFP report alleged?

Dr. Lakiss at the Najm Hospital in Tyre said that it was the hospital that informed the Lebanese Army and police of the explosion, not the other way around, and that once informed, the army was unable to find any evidence of other toy bombs. "Because it is on the edge of the security zone, people assume it is the forces which occupy the area who are doing such things to stop people from going in," he said. Dr Lakiss also admitted that he had never seen the alleged doll or even pieces of it. "That was the story that the family came in with," he said.

According to the original AFP report Maryam's family, Lebanese officials, Hezbollah, and officials of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) officials all alleged that Israel was responsible.

However, the spokesman for the only impartial source, UNIFIL, denies that UNIFIL claimed that Israel was responsible for the incident. Michael Lindval, Chief UNIFIL Spokesperson for Southern Lebanon, told the Review that UNIFIL was not even sure who was responsible for the bombing and that it never witnessed the incident nor attended the scene.

There are other inconsistencies in the AFP report. It seems that somewhere between Deir Aames, Beirut and Paris, the suspect toy jeep that Maryam's family alleged contained the explosive device became a doll. The AFP Beirut Bureau journalist Jacqueline Jraissaty, who claims to have written the story, never met or spoke with Maryam, nor her family, nor for that matter, UNIFIL. Jacqueline never visited the site of the incident and managed to report the entire story in the South of Lebanon from her office in Beirut. And then along the way we came across an unusual character who assisted her - Mr. Jihad Saqlaoui.

The Review began to investigate the story behind the story by contacting Agence France Presse's head office in Paris. We were told that the story had been researched and written by the AFP bureau in Beirut, Lebanon and that any inquiry about the item should be referred to the regional desk in Beirut, where we spoke to journalist Jacqueline Jraissaty. Her English, though diluted with her native tongue, Arabic, was clear and easy to understand and we were able to have a detailed and lengthy conversation. Ms. Jraissaty told us about the frequency of such bombing incidents and the manner in which "these things occur".

"Every now and then there are such things" she said, "they [Israel] are occupying a zone of some, little bit less than 1000 square kilometres, a long line... so just on the other side, there are villages, inhabited villages, but of course when the resistance want to make operation attack against the Israeli occupation army, they come from these villages. So the Israelis put such things in order to make people leave... to have a second buffer zone."

We asked her whether there was any doubt regarding Israeli involvement in these acts. "We have proof, you know there is a United Nations force down there which is called UNIFIL. There is a UN Council resolution 425, Israel is not applying it and UNIFIL was supposed to go with the Lebanese Army all over this region but Israel is not retreating, not going away." She also claimed that UNIFIL experts had also helped to disconnect the explosions and dynamite rigged up to rocks by the Israelis.

"When the Israelis made the Operation Grapes of Wrath last year and the year before also, they throw these puppets or dolls or whatever much further, northern, than the usual border of the border zone ... deeper inside Lebanon."

"How are the dolls dispersed?" we asked.

"For example, the dolls," she said, "have been thrown by helicopters, or planes, and those who are just on the buffer, one kilometre north of the zone, could have been planted by patrols. They are the superpower, you know, they can do whatever they want."

Ms. Jraissaty assured us that she could provide proof of her assertions with documentation. We then asked whether it was possible that Israel could have planted the explosives in order to target Hezbollah fighters rather than civilians? She was adamant. "No. Now look, look, they are dolls. I don't think they would be against the fighters, but the fighters could see it and take it home for their children. I think the fighters know that when they find a doll like this that it is a booby-trapped doll - what is happening is that children are taking them."

The longer we spoke, the more disturbing the story became. Ms. Jraissaty spoke of Israeli soldiers planting explosives disguised as pebbles or rocks and detonating them by remote control from the surrounding hill tops.

She talked about a shepherd who was killed when a pebble he was playing with exploded in his hand. "I don't want to say that the Israelis made on purpose to make it explode but, you know ... he took a pebble and he was playing and it killed him!"

Serious allegations against Israel were mounting at an alarming rate. Ms. Jraissaty assured us that AFP only reported stories which had been "uncategorically proven, when we have photos, when we have testimony from UN, when we have the police". We were doubtful of her promise to send me "these reports", and we have yet to receive them. But she insisted that AFP could not send stories all over the world without the requisite proof.

"We cannot use a story unless we have definite proof and if we don't have, then we have to write that we have no proof." Before concluding, we asked Ms. Jraissaty how she became aware of the Maryam Ali Bustani incident. She was irritated by the question. "She was taken to the hospital," she said, "and UNIFIL is down there too. She was taken by UN troops to their hospital first and then to another." Now Dr Lakiss and Dr Najm both told the Review that it was Maryam's parents who brought her to Najm hospital and that UNIFIL officers were neither seen nor heard from, nor mentioned in any of the documented reports.

During the course of our conversation, Ms. Jraissaty also made a number of comments which left us doubtful of her objectivity and her involvement in the preparation of the story. When referring to Israel she referred to "our enemies in Palestine", before quickly correcting herself. When we asked for more details, she said that she would have to "check" the facts with her correspondent Jihad Saqlaoui "down there", which we understood to mean southern Lebanon. Although Ms. Jraissaty originally told us that she had written the story, an AFP stringer, Jihad Saqlaoui, later told us that he had written the story. Later on still, Ms. Jraissaty admitted that "Jihad did the story, investigated and brought the proof", and that she had worked on and filed the story from Beirut for AFP Paris.

But perhaps the most sobering of all, was a short note she attached to the copy of her story which she faxed to The Review. The note reads: "I forgot to tell you. There has been problems with our regional desk about this story.

They didn't want to run it as 'Israeli Booby-trapped Toy' and took it away from the report, adding the Israeli denial. The English desk even took away the UNIFIL officer testimony (that's why I sent you the French version).

"I only want to point out that all along we have been sending reports on Israeli booby trapped toys and Israeli army never denied. This time, they did it on the request of the desk. Anyway, some Europeans feel so much guilty about what happened during World War II that they think by erasing what Israel is doing now, they repent for their sins.

"Have a good day, Jacqueline." Ms. Jraissaty claimed to us that UNIFIL had verified her story and indeed the French version of the AFP report clearly states that "A UNIFIL officer indicated to AFP that the objects were mainly dispersed via helicopter. 'It could be a toy or look like a simple stone'" he clarified, anonymously. So, we contacted UNIFIL to verify this.

UNIFIL, first established in March 1978, originally had as its mandate the confirmation of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, the restoration of international peace and security, and assistance to the Government of Lebanon ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area. Caught between Israeli forces and the Islamic Hezbollah it endeavours to prevent its area of operations from being used for hostile activities and to protect civilians caught in the conflict.

Its Information Officer, Michael Lindval, claims that although UNIFIL heard about the incident from the Lebanese Army, UNIFIL itself could not verify any of the assertions other than that an explosion occurred and a young girl injured her hand.

Michael Lindval explained that UNIFIL is often the first to arrive on the scene and is obligated to write a report.

In this case, he said, the Lebanese Army arrived first and had already cleaned up the site before UNIFIL could reach the scene. Lindval noted however that families often claim that the injury was caused by an explosive device planted by the Israelis because in this way, they will be entitled to compensation from the government and can then afford the required medical treatment. "UNIFIL and other organisations are often hesitant to dispute these claims because they know that the family will be deprived of badly needed money to pay for the necessary treatment."

Although Lindval claims that the Lebanese Army, which informed him of the explosion, is "generally pretty reliable", he added that "AFP has been known to be reckless in its reporting and UNIFIL have sometimes had to reprimand the Beirut office because it has stepped so far out of line."

Lindval explained that the press in Lebanon is basically unaccountable and that AFP is as unruly as the local press itself. "If this claim is false," Lindval said, "it would not be the first time.

"AFP is a fairly dubious source of information on incidents such as this one. However UNIFIL cannot make any claims on this case because it got there after the fact," Lindval said. He added that UNIFIL has no information on the incident and could not have provided any information to AFP. "I can't remember a single case where the Israelis were found to have planted a toy object to injure or kill civilians," he said.

So we were left with Ms. Jraissaty's claim that UNIFIL had not only confirmed the incident, but had also taken Maryam to its own hospital before she was transported to the Najm Hospital in Tyre. On the other hand, UNIFIL Information Officer Michael Lindval was unequivocally denied any UNIFIL participation in the incident at all.

Lindval however did shed some light on the elusive 'Jihad Saqlaoui' whom Jacqueline had referred to as her correspondent in the field.

"Jihad Saqlaoui" Lindval laughed, "is one of ten stringers and is probably the least reliable Ôsource' in Lebanon.

Stringers only make their money when they come up with something juicy", Lindval explained . "So if Jihad doesn't fabricate, he definitely exaggerates. He has to come up with good stories or he doesn't get paid." Lindval also explained that since Jihad is out in the field, in places which are regarded as less than desirable, there are very few people who would be prepared to either verify or disprove the reports he maintains are true. "Nobody wants to go out into the fields to verify the stories so stringers in that region have a lot of freedom to say whatever they want and to do whatever they want and to make whatever claims they want."

Before contacting Jihad Saqlaoui, we contacted a second UNIFIL officer on May 8, just to reconfirm that UNIFIL had absolutely no involvement in the incident and to find out more about Saqlaoui. The second officer, who identified himself as Hassan, was also familiar with the story. "No, UNIFIL didn't say anything. The reporter fabricated that to make his story look very official so that everybody will call just like you're calling now," Hassan said.

When we asked if it was possible that the entire story could have been fabricated, he answered "Actually, it could be true or not true. We went up there and we wanted to investigate the matter but everything was removed already." He said that the Lebanese Police had gone to the site and had reportedly found small plastic things and had taken them away. "Look" he said, "we didn't find anything, so we can't accuse anybody."

As for the AFP allegation that Israel had scattered the toys by helicopter Hassan disagreed. "No, no, no, no. AFP didn't give enough details, they just write small, short sentences. When you say helicopters, what were the helicopters? When you say toys, what is the name of the toys? Only the girl is talking about that. It's because Jihad was their stringer. Where is the official version from the Lebanese Police? Where is the official version from the Lebanese authorities for the story?"

On May 29, we telephoned Jihad Saqlaoui on his mobile phone in southern Lebanon. He said there had been an explosion with a doll and that he had seen the doll on the ground. "Just a week later there was someone in the next village who was hurt by a stone. There are a lot in the village... Hezbollah collects dolls like that, they have a lot of things with them now, a jeep, a torch. I saw it at Hezbollah headquarters." Hezbollah headquarters is where you got the information? "Yes they had the evidence", replied Jihad.

So we asked Jihad whether he had written the story or whether he had simply given the details to Ms. Jraissaty.

"Me, I wrote the story," he claimed. "I am the AFP correspondent in South Lebanon." We asked him to explain why some reports from AFP alleged that it was a toy jeep that blew up while others said it was a toy doll. "I don't know", said Jihad. "Perhaps the toy doll was sitting in the toy jeep." We decided to talk with Michael Lindval of UNIFIL a third time. He had promised to check UNIFIL's records on the incident for me. "In this story, UNIFIL did not provide any reports at all to AFP, I know that for a fact," he said. "The reports which are mentioned in the AFP story will have to stand for AFP. It's funny, because the part of the story which you mention about quoting a UNIFIL officer was not included in the stories which turned up here, then when I found it in the story which had gone abroad, I called them [AFP] and asked whom they were quoting and of course they said that they had spoken to a UN officer at the scene. And of course that is possible, but I don't think that is very likely... I've been checking around a bit and like I said, I don't think it's likely that anybody from UNIFIL was spoken to."

Lt. Col. Sharon Grinker, Spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) expressed outrage when confronted by the Review with the claims. "In South Lebanon, the IDF operates in order to protect the settlements of Northern Israel. The IDF does not use improper means in any region, certainly not against children", Grinker said, adding that "the Hezbollah operates and finds shelter in areas populated by civilians. The IDF does not use booby-trap devices against children. The Hezbollah, however, uses explosive devices disguised as boulders and has caused casualties to IDF soldiers in this way, and possibly to Lebanese civilians too."

We put the Israeli denial to Jihad Saqlaoui. "There was a helicopter, we are not very far from them [the Israelis] 10 kilometres, its nothing, as the Israeli helicopter flies it looks for little children and they throw the toys with explosives in them from the helicopter to attract the little children - its something typically Jewish!"

In the end the Review's investigation could find no corroboration for the AFP claims. Ms. Jraissaty told us that they do not run stories without all the evidence. So far we have seen none, and AFP has provided none. The only two sources for the report at this stage that we could confirm were Hezbollah and Jihad Saqlaoui. While UNIFIL was prepared to confirm that an explosion had taken place, that was as far as they would go. Jihad's colleague in the story Ms. Jraissaty described Israel as "the enemy" and could not furnish evidence beyond the claims of her colleague Jihad. UNIFIL, for its part, considers Jihad to be highly unreliable and our experience with him would tend to confirm this.

There is no evidence that Israel was in any way involved in the incidents, let alone support the extraordinary allegations put in the AFP report. Deep in the troubled south of Lebanon it is hard to confirm stories, and harder still to ever know the full truth in a world of militias, foreign armies, Islamic fundamentalists and drug lords.

But the fact remains that the allegations are both very serious and very damaging to Israel. When Israel commits excesses, it appropriately faces international condemnation. But too often, when it is falsely accused, those allegations leave a bitter and false impression of the nation. And when those allegations come from an international newsagency they carry even more weight. Journalists are considered a witness to history, and an uninformed world relies on their ability to relay accounts accurately. When Israel cries foul, too often it falls on deaf ears. Tough luck for them, that the sources of the allegations have borne false witness.