[Kabar-indonesia] IHT/NYT: Indonesia Expects Israel To Approve Its Peacekeepers

[Joyo at aol.com]

International Herald Tribune 
September 2, 2006

Indonesia expects Israel to approve its peacekeepers

By Jane Perlez The New York Times

JAKARTA Indonesia expects to send a contingent of
1,000 soldiers as members of the United Nations
peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, even though
Israel had earlier expressed objections, a senior
government official said Friday.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said, however,
that while there may yet be an agreement with
Indonesia on sending troops for Unifil, "matters are
still not finalized."

Israel said it would oppose soldiers from Muslim
countries that did not have diplomatic relations with
it when initial plans were being drawn up for the
15,000-strong peacekeeping force, a position that
appeared to bar soldiers from Indonesia, Malaysia and
Bangladesh.

Spain, meanwhile, announced that it would send 1,100
troops for the expanded UN force.

The first main contingent of Italian soldiers is
scheduled to arrive in the region Saturday.

Israel's opposition to Indonesian soldiers has
softened, said Dino Djalal, the foreign policy adviser
to the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Djalal said that he had information that Israel would
eventually voice no objections to the participation of
Indonesia.

"My latest information is that Israel has or will
state or indicate they do not object to their
participation," he said.

In Tel Aviv, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign
Ministry, Mark Regev, couched Israel's position in a
way that fell short of outright rejection.

"We think all countries who want to contribute should
have relations with both sides, with us and with
Lebanon," Regev said.

In voicing their concerns, Israeli officials have said
that countries that do not formally recognize Israel
would have difficulty in dispatching soldiers who
would be evenhanded and would not tilt toward
Hezbollah.

The dispatch of Indonesian troops to Lebanon comes
after the Bush administration, eager to promote
Indonesia as a moderate Muslim country, improved its
relations with the Indonesian Army.

Earlier this year, Washington set aside concerns over
the army's human rights record and renewed military
ties that included training for individual Indonesian
officers at staff colleges in the United States.

The UN peacekeeping force, which will work alongside
the Lebanese Army, is to establish a buffer zone
between the Israeli border and the
Hezbollah-controlled Litani River.

But in talking about the participation of Muslim
countries in the UN force,

Israeli officials have said that they regarded some
Muslim countries in a better light than others.

They noted that the former Israeli prime minister,
Yitzhak Rabin, visited Indonesia in 1992 and that
Israel sent humanitarian assistance to Indonesia after
the tsunami in Aceh in December 2004.

A former Indonesian president, Abdurrahman Wahid,
visited Israel twice in the 1990s when he was the
leader of one of Indonesia's largest Muslim
organizations.

At the United Nations, peacekeeping officials said
that they regarded Indonesia and Malaysia as strong
participants in past peacekeeping missions and that
they were moving ahead with plans to incorporate
soldiers from both countries.

Malaysia has also offered 1,000 troops for the UN
force.

The world's most populous Muslim country, Indonesia is
considered moderate in its religious outlook, and its
soldiers have served in 30 United Nations peacekeeping
operations.

Indonesian soldiers were part of the UN contingent in
the Sinai from 1974 to 1979 that monitored the
cease-fire between Egypt and Israel.

In 1956, Indonesian soldiers were sent to help monitor
the withdrawal of British, French and Israeli troops
from Egypt in the wake of the Suez crisis.

For the Indonesians, the dispatch of the nation's
troops to the high-profile peacekeeping assignment is
seen as a prestigious one, particularly as the
military adjusts to a less powerful role after the
collapse nearly a decade ago of the authoritarian
regime of Suharto.

Yudhoyono has pushed Indonesia's participation as part
of an effort to promote himself as a leader with a
presence in international affairs, a position that
past Indonesian presidents, including Suharto,
avoided.

"We believe we can contribute to the peace in Lebanon
- Arabic countries are not really suitable for obvious
reasons," said Djalal, Yudhoyono's foreign policy
adviser.

Djalal said final details of the deployment were being
worked out at UN headquarters in New York.

"Once that's done, they are ready to go," he said.

Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Jerusalem

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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