Indonesia adds more troops to Middle East
Indoensian President SBY has decided to send a total of 1,000 Indonesian troops to Lebanon. Himself a military man, SBY is aware of his position as leader of the world’s most populous Muslim country. Of course all the fighting is over, and the TNI (Indonesian military), have no more stomach for facing the Israeli’s, than do the knuckleheads from Kalimantan who posed for pictures before heading over there. Here in Bali there has been no reaction to the Israel / Lebanon situation. Foreign tourists have nothing to fear from the Balinese locals.
Indonesia has decided to add more troops for peace keeping operation in the Middle East, in the wake of cease-fire that kicked of on Monday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Tuesday.
Indonesian peace keeping troops to the Middle East will increase from 850 to 1,000, the minister said.
Last week, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam prepared to send over 2,000 troops for the mission.
Indonesia prepared 850 personnel of one mechanize battalion.
“The President decided to add the number of troops to 1,000, by adding the element of military observer, civil police and staff,” said Wirajuda.
He said that the troops may be dispatched to the ground this week if the Security Council of the United Nations makes a decision on Wednesday.
The decision to send the troops was made during the emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Countries in Kuala Lumpur at the beginning of this month, in the wake of escalation of conflict in the Middle East.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam are the countries with vast majority Muslims.
About 87 percent of the Indonesia’s 240 million population are Muslim, making it the most populace Muslim country in the world. Malaysia has about 60 percent Muslims of its population.
The meeting of the United Nations Security Council prepared a draft of an immediate cease-fire in the region but did not stipulate the pulling out of Israeli troops from the borders.
Over one thousands Lebaneses and hundreds of Israelis were killed in the conflict.
About 2,000 international peacekeepers are currently posted in the conflict zone.
Source: Xinhua