90 Minutes at Entebbe

by William Stevenson

  I stand here as an accuser of this world Organization, the United Nations, which has been unable, because of the machinations of the Arab representatives and their supporters, to co-ordinate effective measures in order to combat the evil of world terrorism.

  I stand here as an accuser of those delegations to this Organization which for reasons of political expediency have remained silent on this issue—an issue which is bound to affect every country in this Organization. In so doing they have become themselves accomplices.

  Seated in the dock today with the accusing finger of enlightened world opinion directed against them are the terrorist organizations which are plaguing this world, and whose representatives have in the past been seated here by the world body with rights equal to those of Member States. In the dock are all those countries which have collaborated with the terrorists and which have aided and abetted them. There stand here accused those countries which have blocked every international move to deal with this plague of terror which besets the world.

  In the dock before us stand all those countries—they are all too numerous—that cry to the high heavens when they are affected by terrorists, that fulminate at this Security Council table when their citizens or diplomats are threatened, and that remain silent when the same happens to citizens of other countries. Some of them do not even have the doubtful grace to remain silent; they have the wicked effrontery to join in condemnation of a country which tries to prevent these acts.

  In the dock before us stand the representatives of all those countries which stood and applauded the entry into the hall of the General Assembly of a gun-toting terrorist who, according to the President of Sudan, personally gave the order to execute the American and Belgian diplomats bound hand and foot in the basement of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum on 1 March 1973.

  Yes, before us stands accused this rotten, corrupt, brutal, cynical, bloodthirsty monster of international terrorism and all those who support it in one way or the other, whether by commission or omission. Facing them today are the ordinary decent human beings throughout the world who seek nothing more than to live a life free from terror and from intimidation, free from the threats of hijackers, the indiscriminate bombs of terrorists and the blackmail of criminals and murderers.

  Israel’s action at Entebbe in order to release its hostages has given rise to a worldwide wave of support and approval, such as has rarely been seen from every continent, including Africa; from every walk of life; from countries hostile, as well as friendly, to Israel. The ordinary man and woman in the street have risen behind us and proclaimed “enough” to this spectre of terror, have cried out “enough” to this world body of pontificating diplomats in which on so many occasions moral cowardice and cynical expediency have combined to drag it down to the depths to which it has plunged.

  In more ways than one, this Organization is in the accused stand today. Mankind will judge it by its behaviour on this occasion, because never has the issue been clearer; never has the issue been so clear-cut. There will be no excuse in history for this body, or for the constituent Members of this body, if it fails to condemn terrorism. The issue before this body is not what Israel did at Entebbe Airport: the issue before this body is its own future in the eyes of history.

  The representative of Uganda has very conveniently avoided the main issue before us. Let me recount the events as they occurred.

  On Sunday, 27 June 1976, an Air France airbus, flight 139, en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, was hijacked by a group of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists with 256 innocent passengers aboard in addition to a crew of 12.

  The terrorists took advantage of the lax security measures obtaining at Athens airport and brought on board pistols and approximately 20 grenades.

  Thus began a methodically planned and carefully executed act of air piracy by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the several terrorist groups joined together to form the PLO. Thus began another in a long list of PLO crimes against innocent civilians.

  Having commandeered the aircraft, the hijackers forced the French pilot to land in what is by now internationally accepted as the first haven for such criminals, namely, Libya.

  This was, it will be recalled, the first stop in the flight of the ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) kidnapped in Austria last year. The Council will recall that the hijackers, holding at pistol point the ministers of the member countries of OPEC, of which Libya is a member, were greeted effusively by Prime Minister Jalloud of Libya, who embraced the criminals who at that time were holding his Arab ministerial colleagues as hostages and who had only the day before killed a member of the Libyan delegation in Vienna.

  On this occasion which we are now discussing, last week the Prime Minister did not greet the terrorists. He was doubtless preoccupied with preparations for a Libyan sponsored coup d’etat in Sudan, judging by the complaint submitted by my Sudanese colleague to this Council. All these in addition to his preoccupations with bringing in so-called Libyan peace-keeping forces to Beirut in order to fan the flames of hatred, to enlarge the scope of murder, and to increase the peril for the Christian population in Lebanon.

  Having mentioned Libya, I think it is appropriate to draw attention to the central role which this country plays in the promotion and encouragement of international terror in the world today.

  This is the country which has for years acted as paymaster of international terror movements, Arab and non-Arab, throughout the world.

  This is the country which has been condemned by Sudan and Tunisia only recently for its acts of terror and for the sinister and dangerous part it has played in planning to assassinate the leaders of these States and to overthrow their Governments.

  This is the country whose ambassador was expelled but a few days ago by the Government of Egypt for its subversive activities.

  It is, I submit, a disgrace to this world Organization that the representative of this world sponsor of terrorism is seated as a member of the Security Council, the purpose of which is to encourage the maintenance of international peace and security.

  To return to our story, the Air France plane was refueled in Benghazi. The destination of the hijackers was, in accordance with a previously prepared plan, Entebbe Airport, outside Kampala in Uganda.

  The airbus landed at Entebbe Airport on Monday, 28 June, and the hijackers were met by a reinforcement of terrorists, who awaited them at the terminal armed to the teeth with sub machine guns and explosives.

  President Idi Amin of Uganda arrived at the airport shortly before the hijacked plane landed and embraced the hijackers in a gesture of welcome and a promise of support and assistance. Ugandan soldiers were then positioned with their guns trained, not on the hijackers, but on the innocent civilians—men, women and children.

  On Tuesday, 29 June 1976, the hijackers spelt out their demands. These included the release of 53 terrorists gaoled in Israel, West Germany, France, Switzerland and Kenya by a deadline of 3 p.m., local time, Thursday, 1 July. They threatened to put the innocent passengers to death if their terms were not met.

  When the hijackers released 47 women and children and some passengers on Wednesday, 30 June, it gradually became apparent that President Amin was in fact co-operating with the terrorists under a cloak of deception and false pretence. This was the situation on the evening of 1 July, the first deadline set by the terrorists. It became obvious that the Israeli passengers—men, women and children—were in serious and grave danger of their lives.

  When the hijackers released a further 100 hostages, their story, when they arrived in Paris, revealed an ominous development. They described to the waiting reporters how Ugandan soldiers, under direct orders of President Amin, supervised the separation of Jewish passengers from non-Jewish passengers.

  This was a development of a nature so sinister and so pregnant with memories of the past that no member of the Jewish people, whether in Israel or abroad, could fail to recall its horrib
le significance.

  There flashed immediately upon the inward eye of every member of our people the memory of the terrifying selections carried out during the most horrifying holocaust that mankind has ever seen and which beset our people. We recalled the selections carried out by the Nazis in the concentration camps as members of the Jewish people were singled out for the gas chambers and extermination.

  Following the never-to-be-forgotten experience of the holocaust in Europe during the Second World War, an oath was taken—whether consciously or unconsciously—by every member of the Jewish people, wherever he or she might have been, that never again would this happen; that never again would circumstances be allowed to develop in which such a catastrophe could happen; that Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald belonged to the past and would never again return.

  On this occasion, I solemnly reaffirm before this body the oath which has been taken by our Jewish people, wherever they may be. It will never happen again.

  And so, when this ominous reminiscent selection began, when the separation of the Jews was undertaken, it became apparent to the Government of Israel that there was no alternative but to conduct a rescue operation to save the lives of its citizens.

  The Government of Israel’s apprehension was heightened by a knowledge of President Amin’s attitude towards the Jewish people. In September 1972, President Amin sent a cable, which was published on 13 September 1972, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kurt Waldheim, with copies to the Prime Minister of Israel and to the leader of the PLO, Yassir Arafat. In this cable, President Amin applauded the murder of the Israeli sportsmen at the Olympic Games in Munich who, bound hand and foot, were gunned down by the PLO. Moreover, in the same message, he had the obscene ghoulishness to praise Hitler for his role in destroying over 6 million Jews.

  The members of the Council will recall that but nine months ago, in the General Assembly of the United Nations, President Amin called for the extinction of Israel as a State. The combination of the move to separate Israeli and Jewish passengers from other passengers, the official endorsement of Hitler’s policies by the President of Uganda, his call for the extinction of Israel and the horrible fate of hundreds of thousands of his own countrymen who did not find favour in his eyes—in this connexion I refer members to the terrifying recital of the brutalities of what it refers to as the “dictatorial fascist ruler of Uganda” published on 7 July by the Government of Kenya—all these taken together bring home to the Government of Israel the realization that, unless action were taken, the hostages, men, women and children, were doomed and could expect no mercy in Entebbe.

  What more sinister indication of the wicked and maniacal intentions of the hijackers and murderers and of their Ugandan allies could there have been than that among the hostages held until the last moment before the deadline were 11 children and 34 women doomed to be shot in cold blood by those bloodthirsty murderers?

  There, under the watchful guns of Terror International and President Amin, a kindergarten was organized by the hostages in the shadow of impending death. The tragic scene this evokes in one’s mind is devastating. It is so much in character with the style of these bandits. They were there prepared to shoot down a kindergarten of innocent children, just as their colleagues in Somalia but a few months ago—as we were informed by the French Ambassador here—threatened to cut the throats of 30 French children aged six to twelve who were being held hostage.

  At this point, let me quote from the statement of Prime Minister Rabin to the Knesset on 4 July:

  “The time of expiry of the ultimatum drew increasingly closer. The release of non-Israeli passengers more and more exposed the evil conspiracy against Israeli citizens. The political efforts bore no fruit. The sand in the hourglass was about to run out, leaving no possibility for any independent rescue effort. Under these conditions, the Government of Israel decided unanimously to take the only way left to rescue our people and declared its readiness to release terrorists detained in Israeli prisons. Following the Cabinet’s decision we accordingly informed the French Government, through which the negotiations were being conducted with the terrorists. We were prepared to adopt even this alternative—in default of any other—to rescue our people. This was not a tactic to gain time, and had this choice alone been left, we would have stood by our decision as a last resort.”

  The hijackers raised their demands. They announced that Israel would be held responsible for all the terrorists whose release they demanded, including those terrorists not held in Israel, and they refused to allow the exchange to be made in France or on neutral territory outside Uganda. Their sinister tone and new demands boded evil for the hostages. The Government of Israel was left with no alternative.

  On the night of 3-4 July 1976, the Israel Defence Forces mounted a most remarkable operation which will go down in history‚ rescued the hostages and escorted them to safety.

  I wish to reiterate on this occasion that Israel accepted full and sole responsibility for the action, that no other Government was at any stage party to the planning or the execution of the operation. The operation was planned and executed by Israel. We are proud of it.

  During that rescue operation, three of the hostages were killed by the terrorists before the terrorists were gunned down by Israeli troups. A senior Israeli officer was killed, shot in the back, and several soldiers and hostages were wounded.

  The weight of evidence before us reveals prior knowledge and active connivance on the part of the Government of Uganda in this whole episode. Even if the evidence were not available—and I say it is available in abundance—it is sufficient to read the letter addressed by President Amin to you, Mr. President, on 4 July 1976 (S/12124, annex), in order to reveal that he implicated himself in his own statement. It is quite evident from his letter that the Ugandan troops mounted guard not over the terrorists and the hijackers but over the hostages. In the fourth paragraph of his letter he states, “I directed that the plane be guarded properly”. He then goes on to make the most incredible statement: “. . . the Uganda Armed Forces were not allowed by the hijackers to go near the airport building”. This is known to be false. The Ugandan troops were in and around the building.

  He then reveals his complicity in relating the story of the release of the 147 hostages on 30 June and 1 July by openly admitting his part in separating the Israeli passengers from the other passengers. We learn also from his letter of the sinister part played by the Somali Ambassador to Uganda, the representative of a country which has become a prime troublemaker in the area and a threat to its neighbours in Kenya, Ethiopia and the area of Djibouti, and which only a few months ago was involved in holding hostage 30 French children, on which occasion the Government of France, motivated by the same sentiments which motivated the Government of Israel this time, took armed action in exercise of its rights under international law to save the children from Somalia.

  It is no coincidence that one of the terrorists at Entebbe Airport was the head of the PLO office in Somalia.

  The entire story is one of collusion from beginning to end on the part of the Ugandan Government. Let me spell out only a small proportion of the facts as recounted by members of the Air France crew and the hostages who were released.

  On advance complicity,

  (a) The captain of the Air France plane has stated that the German hijacker, Wilfred Bose, knew in advance that Entebbe was the plane’s destination.

  (b) When the plane landed at Entebbe, the German woman hijacker declared, “Everything is OK; the army is at the airport.”

  (c) Bose announced to the passengers when they landed that they had arrived at a safe place.

  (d) Immediately on arrival, Ugandan soldiers surrounded the plane. They were accompanied by five armed Arab terrorists who embraced and kissed the hijackers on the plane. After that, the terrorist reinforcements took part in the guard duties and in the negotiations.

  (e) Before landing, while they were still in the air, the hijackers advised the p
assengers that buses would come to collect them.

  (f) After the passengers had been concentrated in the terminal’s large hall, President Amin was seen embracing and shaking hands with the hijackers.

  (g) As the plane landed and was taxiing along the runway, a black Mercedes car drove up, two terrorists emerged and one of them took over control of the operation thereafter. He boarded the plane, embraced Bose, the German hijacker, and talked to him.

  (h) Michel Cojot, a French company executive who acted as a go-between for the passengers and the hijackers, reported that when the airport director brought supplies for the hostages, he, the director, said he was prepared with supplies as he had been told to wait for approximately 260 passengers and crew.

  Now, on the detention of the hijacked passengers,

  (a) In the first 24 hours, guard duty was done by Ugandan soldiers, and the hijackers were not in sight. When the hijackers returned refreshed, the Ugandan soldiers supplied them with sub-machine-guns to guard the hijacked passengers. I ought to mention here that the Foreign Minister of Uganda had said that the hijackers were armed with sub-machine-guns. What he omitted to mention was that on the plane all they had were pistols and grenades. The sub-machine-guns were supplied to them when they landed at Entebbe.

  (b) In the following days the Ugandans were on guard outside the building, while a large force of them was concentrated on the first floor of the building.

  (c) Ugandan soldiers escorted the hostages to, and guarded them in, the toilets.

  (d) The terrorists came and went as if they were at home with two cars driven by Ugandans, one of them in uniform, at their disposal.

  (e) The hijackers received logistic aid and were supplied with arms—sub-machine guns, pistols and explosives—at the airport. They also received a mobile communications set.

  (f) The terrorist who took control of the operation in Entebbe took hostages aside, under Ugandan guard, for interrogation.