Indonesians join UN peacekeepers in Lebanon amid tensions

BEIRUT (AFP) - A first batch of Indonesian troops have flown in to Beirut to join a UN peacekeeping force, whose commander warned of growing tensions in south Lebanon.

Around 125 members of the 851-strong Indonesian contingent arrived at Beirut airport on a military planes, an Indonesian armed forces spokesman said Friday. The rest of the team is due to leave on November 24.

Indonesia's contingent had been scheduled to head to Lebanon in early October but the departure was delayed on several occasions because of logistical difficulties.

One of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's sons, an army first lieutenant, was reportedly among the troops in the advance party.

Israel, which does not have diplomatic ties with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, had initially objected to Jakarta's involvement in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

UNIFIL is enforcing a truce that ended a July-August conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite guerrillas of Hezbollah that killed around 1,200 civilians in Lebanon and 162 Israelis, mainly soldiers.

Some 20 countries are contributing troops to the peacekeeping operation, with some 9,500 soldiers currently deployed in support of the Lebanese army in the south of the country.

UNIFIL's French commander, General Alain Pellegrini, warned in a newspaper interview published on Friday of a possible deterioration in the south amid political tensions in Beirut and the worsening Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We fear the situation could deteriorate rapidly in the (border) zone, especially by actions that could be initiated from the zone in the direction of Israel," Pellegrini said, apparently referring to Hezbollah attacks.

"Also, there could be domestic dispute, in other words a repercussion from the inter-Lebanese problems that have shown up for example at the negotiating table.

"We are following this affair very closely. Without wishing to be very pessimistic, we must acknowledge there are potential sources of fragility in the situation," said Pellegrini.

Lebanese leaders have been holding roundtable talks in an attempt to heal the political crisis that has gripped the country since the summer war, pitting Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies against the anti-Syrian majority in parliament.

"There is also the Palestinian problem because we must not forget there are Palestinian camps in this (southern) zone which could react for example to the regional situation," cautioned Pellegrini.

"There are different sources of tension," he said, while also noting Israel's overflights of Lebanon in defiance of UN condemnation.

An Israeli overflight of UN positions in south Lebanon at the end of last month nearly triggered a French armed response. Israel's ambassador to France said Thursday that it was "not aggressive" and was "wrongly interpreted.

"All the Israeli air force's flights over Lebanon have one sole purpose, they are reconnaissance flights. There is no exception to the rule," Daniel Shek told AFP.

French officials said Israeli military aircraft dived towards French troops serving with UNIFIL who were within "two seconds" of firing back. The incident took place on October 31, officials said.

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