RI TO SEND MORE PEACEKEEPERS TO LEBANON, SUDAN

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 16 (ANTARA) - As part of its efforts to help maintain peace in the world, Indonesia has decided to send more security personnel to join the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon and Sudan.

        The Indonesian government made the decision when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held bilateral talks Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Sudanese President Omer Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir during the 11th Summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Dakar, Senegal, on March 13-14, 2008.

        Indonesia will send at least 90 military police personnel to Lebanon and 140 civilian police to Sudan to help maintain peace in Darfur.

        President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said his government would send 90 military police personnel to Lebanon in addition to the 850 infantry troopers already assigned there to maintain peace in that country.

        In November 2007, the Indonesian government sent the Garuda XXIII-B military contingent there as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil).

        The 850-strong contingent led by Lt Col Djoko Sudiono consists of joint military personnel from the three services in the TNI, the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

        The Indonesian contingent consists of 528 personnel from the Army, 242 personnel from the Navy, 60 personnel from the Air Force, 16 personnel from TNI Headquarters, one from the Defense Ministry and three from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

        Konga XXIII-B replaced Konga XXIII-A that had been assigned in Lebanon to help maintain peace for one year.

        The president made the statement in a press conference on the results of his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora on the sidelines of the OIC summit.

        "I have agreed to meet the United Nations request to send 90 military police in addition to the 850 infantry personnel already assigned there," President Yudhoyono said.

        Indonesia is always open to request for additional peacekeeping forces provided that they were under the UN peacekeeping mission and designed to prevent fresh fightings.

        "We are ready to help prevent a new Israeli attack such as what happened in 2006," the president said. The Indonesian government remained fully committed to supporting Lebanese sovereignty and hoped that all sorts of violence would be ended.

        Lebanon fought Islamists in the north of the country for weeks last year. The Unifil force has been greatly expanded since the 2006 outbreak of war between Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters and Israel.

        The Unifil force has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978 and at least 13,000 soldiers, including contingents from France, Spain, Italy and India, have been deployed under the UN interim force.

        Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, sent the 850 troops to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon last year to enforce a cease-fire between Israel and the armed group Hezbollah.

        Sudan

        In the meantime, Sudan has also asked Indonesia to double its small contribution in the predominantly African hybrid peacekeeping force under the United Nations aegis in Darfur.

        Indonesia will deploy 140 civilian police to a 26,000 joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force, which, if fully deployed, would be the world's largest operation of its kind to help end five years of rape and slaughter in the vast Sudanese desert.

        "Sudan wants Indonesia to play more roles in peacekeeping efforts in Darfur," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said after the closing of the OIC summit. Earlier, Yudhoyono had met his Sudanese counterpart Omer Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir.

        The Indonesian government is preparing 140 police personnel to be assigned in Darfur. "But Sudan has asked for 140 more," Yudhoyono said.

        Indonesia's decision to send civilian police personnel came as nations offered their security personnel to join the Darfur peacekeeping efforts. France and Denmark have also offered to contribute to a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur.

        Yudhoyono said the Indonesian government was happy to play a role in the peacekeeping effort as long as its forces were placed under the United Nations peacekeeping force.

        Indonesia fully believed that the Sudanese government was able to resolve the conflicts in Darfur and hoped that the overall solutions taken to create peace would really bring betterment to the Sudanese people.

        Sudan had resisted a push for U.N. peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed African Union force now in Darfur, where 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced.

        Acceptance of the new 26,000-strong force marked a major turnaround for Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir's government, which had resisted for months a push to send U.N. peacekeepers to the western Darfur region. (T.A014/A/HNG/A/E002) (T.A014/A/A014/A/E002) 16-03-2008 23:03:15