FOR RELEASE WITH STORY BC-MIDEAST-LEBANON-GOKSEL, 2001-06-27 (photo)

Timur Goksel, senior advisor to the United Nations Interim Force (UNFIL) in Lebanon stands in front of a map of southern Lebanon, from where Israel pulled out its troops last May, 2000. Goksel arrived in 1979, a year into what would become Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon aimed at crushing fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation who took refuge in the power vacuum that the civil war created. Over two decades into what was to be a temporary assignment to the United Nations force in southern Lebanon, Timur Goksel still has no idea when he'll be leaving. "I still like the place and we're needed. The U.N. will play an essential role between Lebanon and Israel until they reach a peace, and I don't see that coming quickly," says Goksel. Undated file photo. js/AA