Ban Ki-Moon visiting UN troops in southern Lebanon

(31 Mar 2007) SHOTLIST
1. UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) helicopter carrying UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon landing
2. Helicopter on ground
3. Ban standing next to UNIFIL commander - Brigadier General Claudio Graziano - at farewell parade
4. Soldiers marching towards memorial statue with wreath
5. Ban placing wreath at memorial
6. Ban and Graziano saluted by peacekeepers
7. Peacekeepers marching
8. Ban approaching microphone
9. Cutaway of peacekeeper on lookout
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General:
"I was briefed that there are still some elements of challenges and maybe some potential threats. This is why UNIFIL members will have to be continuously vigilant, but this time I was told also the situation is rather calm."
11. Ban leaving
12. Wide pan of UNIFIL helicopter flying over sea
STORYLINE
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited peacekeepers in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border on Saturday and thanked the men and women from 30 countries who are monitoring a cease-fire after a devastating war last year between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Ban flew by helicopter from Beirut to the headquarters of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) at the Lebanese coastal border town of Naqoura, where he was briefed by senior commanders.
He was expected to fly over the Blue Line, the UN-demarcated border between Lebanon and Israel, and make stops at several of the force's bases before flying back to New York, ending his Middle East tour.
In Naqoura, Ban paid tribute to the UN peacekeepers who have died during the 29-year-old mission in southern Lebanon.
Ban told the troops of the need to be "continuously vigilant" in the face of "some elements of challenges and maybe some potential threats."
"But this time I was told also the situation is rather calm," he said.
UNIFIL first deployed in Lebanon in 1978 after an Israeli invasion.
But the force has not been able to stop guerrilla attacks on Israel or subsequent Israeli incursions into Lebanon, such as Israel's 1982 invasion.
The fighting between Hezbollah and Israel last summer, which killed more than 1-thousand in Lebanon and 159 Israelis, was halted by a UN-brokered cease-fire that called for reinforcing UNIFIL to help Lebanese troops patrol the region.
The reinforced UNIFIL, now numbering close to 13-thousand from 30 countries, began taking up positions in August.
It currently patrols a weapons-free zone alongside some 15-thousand Lebanese troops.
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