United Nations Truce Supervision Organization - Background

Background

In response to a request from Count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator for Palestine, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie, sent 50 members of the United Nations guard force from Lake Success to assist the Mediator in supervising the Truce in the former British Mandate of Palestine in 1948 and the "UNTSO", the first peacekeeping operation was established by the United Nations. All the members of the party were experienced international civil servants with a background of service with the United Nations Secretariat at Headquarters. While on duty in Palestine, they were to continue to wear United Nations guard uniforms. UNTSO military observers remain in the Middle East to monitor ceasefires, supervise armistice agreements, prevent isolated incidents from escalating and assist other UN peacekeeping operations in the region. This resolution formed the basis for the establishment of the first United Nations peace-keeping operation which became known as the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)http://popp.gmu.edu/resource-bk/mission/untso.html In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed a plan for the partition of the then British Mandate of Palestine, providing for the creation of an Arab State and a Jewish State, with Jerusalem to be placed in Trusteeship with international status. The plan was not accepted by the Palestinian Arabs and Arab States and only partially accepted by the Jewish Agency of Palestine. On 14 May 1948, the United Kingdom relinquished its mandate over Palestine and the State of Israel was proclaimed. On the following day, the Palestinian Arabs, assisted by Arab States, entered into a state of hostilities against Israel when the Arab League forces under the command of King Abdullah I of Jordan entered the Palestine Mandated area into the territory allotted for the Arab partition.

On 14 May 1948, the Assembly adopts resolution 186 (S-2), which affirms its support for the efforts of the Security Council to secure a truce in Palestine; decides to appoint a U.N. Mediator. Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden was appointed. And sent him to Palestine. On 22 May 1948, the Security Council adopts resolution 49 (1948), calling for an abstention from any hostile military action in Palestine. The resolution also calls upon the parties to facilitate the task of the U.N. Mediator.

On 23 May 1948 Thomas C. Wasson, US Consul and member of the UN Truce Commission was assassinated in Jerusalem.

On 29 May 1948, UN Security Council Resolution 50 (1948), called for a cessation of hostilities in Palestine and decided that the truce should be supervised by the UN Mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg, with the assistance of a group of military observers. The first group of military observers, which has become known as the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), arrived in the region in June 1948, when the Security Council threatened Chapter VII intervention. To enforce the first of two truces, lasting four weeks, the UN then established an observer formation, with members drawn from Belgium, France, and the United States. On 6 July the UN observers had their first casualty with the death of the French Observer Commandant Rene Labarriere, he was wounded near the Afoula area and later died in the Jewish Hospital at Afoula. He was wounded while investigating an alleged violation of the truce provisions by Jewish forces. In 1949, UNTSO military observers remained to supervise the 1949 Armistice Agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbours, which were for many years the main basis of the uneasy truce in the whole area.

The Mediator was instructed on 29 May 1948 to create a one-month truce in Palestine. The Mediator concept was teamed with the Truce Commission for supervisory over-watch of the Truce Plan. As a result, the Mediator and the Truce Commission would be provided with a number of military observers which set a precedence for today's assignment of UNMO's (United Nations Military Observers) in the Middle East.

The month-long truce went into effect on 11 June, 1948. On the same day, the first group of 36 observers arrived via Cairo, Egypt and continued to arrive for the next three days. The first truce did not last long due to widespread violence which again erupted. As a result, the observers were withdrawn on 9 July 1948. The second truce, indefinite in length, was called by the United Nations Security Council on 15 July 1948. This declaration was to be put into effect on 18 July 1948. It was from Security Council Resolution 54 that the Mediator was instructed to supervise the observance of the truce and to establish procedures for examining alleged breaches of the truce since 11 June 1948, and authorized the Mediator to deal with breaches so far as it was within the capacity of the Mediator to do so by appropriate local action, also the Security Council Resolution 54 requested the Mediator to keep the Security Council informed concerning the operation of the truce and where necessary to take appropriate action. During the autumn of 1948, UNTSO was re-established with an increase in size to supervise the Second Truce. The first group of observers to serve in Palestine under the UN Mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, arrived in Rhodes at 6 P.M. GMT 20 July. It included 41 Americans and about 25 Belgians and were deployed on 21 July 1948. The initial group was quickly expanded to 93 in total because of the tremendous area that had to be covered. As the number of personnel grew, the United Nations Secretariat (of Personnel) supported the creation of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), the same organization UN Military Observers are assigned to today. Initially, the command was headed by a Chief-of-Staff (a general officer from one of the participating countries) in accordance with the personal direction of the Mediator, (a civilian).

On 17 September 1948, UN Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte, and Colonel André Serot while on an official tour of duty to Jerusalem were murdered "in cold blood... in the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem by Jewish assailants." Ralphe Bunche, Chief of the UN Mission in Palestine in his letter to the Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok wrote "is an outrage against the international community and an unspeakable violation of elementary morality. His safety, therefore, and that of his Lieutenants under the ordinary rules of law and order was a responsibility of the Provisional government of Israel whose armed forces and representatives control and administer the area. The act constitutes a breach of the truce of the utmost gravity for which the Provisional Government of Israel must assume full responsibility." Provisional Government of Israel did not submit the report to the Security Council or to the Acting Mediator regarding the progress of the investigation into the assassination of Count Bernadotte.

After assassination, the talks between the warring parties began under the supervision of the Acting Mediator, Ralph Bunche. The General Armistice Agreements (GAAs) came out of the Mediator-chaired talks. UNTSO's activities have been and still are spread over territory within five States, and therefore it has relations with five host countries -- Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syrian Arab Republic. Since then, UNTSO has also supervised the General Armistice Agreements of 1949 and the observation of the ceasefire in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights following the Six-Day War of June 1967.

On 11 August 1949 it was decided by the Security Council that the mediators function had been completed and that the role in observing the ceasefire should be passed to the Chief of Staff of the UNTSO