Indonesia delays troop deployment to Lebanon

Jakarta, Sep 15: Indonesia has delayed sending troops to join a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until next month owing to congestion on the ground, a military spokesman said today.

Admiral Mohamad Sunarto, an Indonesian army spokesman, said an advance team of 125 would now depart on October 10 and the main body would leave on October 24. The earlier plan had been for the force to be in place by the end of this month.

He said that the delay had been requested by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for logistical reasons.

''It is because of the congestion and organising UN troops there.'' Israel had initially objected to peacekeepers coming from nations not recognising the Jewish state, but later relaxed that stance.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has no diplomatic ties with Israel.

The UN force, known as UNIFIL II, is being deployed in the south of Lebanon after a truce halted Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah on August 14.

The UN Security Council resolution that led to the truce called for 15,000 UN troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops in the south of the country.

Another Indonesian military spokesman, Colonel Ahmad Yani Basuki, said the Indonesian force would total 850, lower than the roughly 1,000 talked about previously.

Indonesia has also been negotiating to buy 32 armoured vehicles for its Lebanon force from France, despite some objections in parliament that the tender process was not open to public bidding, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

Reuters