LEBANON: Lebanese have low expectations of new international peacekeeping force, as French troops arrive to assist the reconstruction effort

French soldiers arrived at Beirut airport on Sunday (August 27) as part of a mission to help rebuild Lebanon's bridges, destroyed by Israel during the Jewish state's 34-day war with Hizbollah guerillas. Up to 250 French soldiers are taking part in the effort and will be working alongside the Lebanese army across the country. European nations agreed on Friday (August 25) to offer more than half the troops for an expanded United Nations peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon which could total up to 15,000 troops. The U.N. peacekeeping force will help the Lebanese army police Lebanon's border with Israel and maintain a truce established on August 14 when U.N resolution 1701 was enforced. But the U.N. warned it could take months before their full deployment. In Beirut (August 27), residents said that they did not expect much from the U.N peacekeeping mission in the south of their country. Analyst and columnist for Al-Nahar newspaper, Ibrahim Bayram, puts the lack of trust of the people in the U.N. peacekeeping mission down to past experience. "Do the Lebanese trust the international force? Of course they don't. They have had an experiment with this force in the past which wasn't good, " Bayran told Reuters. "They have had an experiment with this force in the past which wasn't good. In 1972, and in accordance with Resolution 425, forces spread to the south of Lebanon, and this didn't prevent Israel from invading Lebanon," he added. The August 11 resolution calls for the reopening of Lebanon's ports but also urges Lebanon to secure its borders to prevent arms shipments to Hizbollah, which ignited the war when it captured two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid. "I think that they are only here to follow their own rules. They are here to put pressure on Lebanon, nothing else and nothing more. And generally, us here, we don't trust U.N. resolutions," said Hatam Murtada, a resident of Beirut's southern suburbs. Lebanese officials will discuss the deployment of a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Beirut on Monday (August 28). In another development on Sunday (August 27), Germany's development minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul met with Lebanon Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, after visiting Beirut's Southern suburbs, and promised some aid relief. According to initial estimates by analysts, Israeli air strikes destroyed $3.5-$4.0 billion worth of the Lebanese infrastructure in the five week war and did as yet uncalculated damage to the economy by wiping out major contributors to the economy. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government has drawn criticism from the media and public who accuse it of dragging its feet in reconstruction, particularly of housing. Hizbollah, on the other hand, which triggered the war by capturing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid into Israel on July 12, has been handing out wads of $12,000 and $10,000 in U.S. banknotes to hundreds of displaced families across the country.

ITN Source | August 27, 2006

Tags:. .capturing. .captured. .billion. .secretary. .promised