UN ranks begin to swell in Lebanon

Wearing blue helmets and carrying rifles, the first wave of Italian commandos stepped from the gray helicopter that landed in a cloud of stinging sand, adding to the growing number of international peacekeepers in south Lebanon.

Some 880 Italians arrived over the weekend to join 2,220 soldiers already here to ensure the three-week-old cease-fire between Lebanese Hizbullah guerrillas and Israel will hold.

As the Italians brought the number of international troops closer to its intended 15,000-strong force, the sight of blue helmets also lent credibility to the expectation of calm here. "I hope they will bring peace for us all. We have suffered too long from war," says Mahmoud Bazzi, who watched as the helicopters clattered low over the sea, ferrying soldiers from the five ships anchored off the coast.

Although more peacekeepers could arrive here in the coming weeks to re- inforce a UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, analysts say that stability in south Lebanon is more dependent on the political will of Hizbullah and Israel than measures undertaken by UNIFIL.

"It doesn't matter how many UNIFIL are on the ground. If there's no political will, it's not going to work and there's not much the force can do about it," says Timur Goksel, university lecturer in Beirut who served with UNIFIL from 1979 to 2003.

UNIFIL deployed in Lebanon in March 1978, in the wake of Israel's first invasion of Lebanon. It has been here ever since, wedged uncomfortably at times between Israeli forces and, initially, Palestinian militants, and later Hizbullah's guerrillas.

General Alain Pellegrini, UNIFIL's French commander, knows all too well the pitfalls of peacekeeping in Lebanon. He served with the French component of the Multinational Force in Beirut in 1983 at the height of Lebanon's civil war. That mission ended after Shiite suicide truck bombers simultaneously blew up the US Marine barracks and the headquarters of the French paratroops, killing more than 300 people.

"Our rules of engagement are being finalized, but this is a very new mission," he says, watching the heavy troop transporter helicopters buzzing over the sea to disgorge yet more Italian commandos.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary for peacekeeping operations, who also was in Tyre to observe the arrival of the Italian troops, says that the UN has changed in the past 10 years.

"The UN of 2006 is not the UN of 10 years ago. We have drawn lessons from past experience. We have robust rules of engagement so that we can defend ourselves and not be humiliated anymore," he says.

Italy aims to deploy 2,450 soldiers in south Lebanon, making it the largest contingent to the new UNIFIL. France has said that it will send 2,000 soldiers, which, with contributions from Spain and Poland, will provide some 7,000 soldiers and will make up the backbone of the new UNIFIL.

Other countries, such as Qatar, Germany, Indonesia, Turkey, and Malaysia, have expressed interest in contributing. Britain and Sweden have offered to dispatch naval patrol ships to monitor the Lebanese coastline.

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