U.N. Creates New Unit to Monitor the Monitors Monitoring the Ceasefire
A fresh subcommittee has been established to verify that the people verifying the verification are filing the correct forms.
Two decades after the ceasefire-monitoring mandate was first expanded, the observation apparatus in southern Lebanon has grown to include a standing office whose only function is to confirm that the original monitors are, in fact, monitoring. The office does not monitor the ceasefire itself, a distinction officials describe as essential to maintaining what one internal memo calls "clean lines of observational accountability."
A second body, informally known within the mission as the Subcommittee on Observational Integrity, was convened shortly afterward to audit the first office's paperwork. Its members do not visit the border. They review binders.
"We are not here to watch the line," said a spokesperson for the subcommittee, who is not permitted to be named or, apparently, to watch the line. "We are here to confirm that the watching of the line has been properly documented by the people watching the watching."
A third, still-theoretical tier has reportedly been proposed to monitor the subcommittee's monitoring of the monitoring unit, though funding has stalled amid disagreement over whether that body would need its own binder-review office.
Mission staff say the arrangement has not changed conditions along the border but has significantly improved the quality and volume of internal correspondence about the border.