Indonesia and Malaysia Offer To Join Afghan Security Force Southeast Asia Tensions 
International Herald Tribune
November 16, 2001
Michael Richardson 

ndonesia and Malaysia offered on Thursday to contribute troops to a multinational force to help stabilize Afghanistan but said that the operation should be under United Nations control.

The offers were significant, analysts said, because the two countries are home to more than 20 percent of the world's Muslims.

The analysts added that the moderate Muslim leaderships in both countries see an opportunity to help restore peace in Afghanistan and to prevent small but vocal Muslim extremist groups in their own countries from gaining influence by claiming that Afghanistan is a victim of a U.S.-led war against Islam.

The offers were made amid moves at the United Nations in New York to convene an urgent meeting of Afghan factions to form a provisional government and an international security force to demilitarize major cities, especially the capital, Kabul.

Diplomats there said that the international security force would not be organized by the United Nations but that it would have UN approval and would start with British or American troops already in the area.

Officials in Indonesia — where more than 85 percent of the 216 million people are Muslims, the largest concentration in the world — said the United States had recently asked Jakarta to contribute to the mission. But the Indonesian defense minister, Matori Abdul Djalil, said the government was awaiting a formal request from the United Nations.

Australia, which also has been asked by the United States to join a multinational stabilization force, said Thursday that it was considering the request. But Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said that Australian troops were already committed to working with American, British and allied forces to root out the Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan and that the new force should be drawn mainly from Muslim countries.

"The Americans have been talking to a number of countries, including us, about what role we might play in stabilizing Afghanistan," Mr. Downer said. "We've made no decision but I think there's a lot of value in having Islamic countries substantially involved in such a peacekeeping force."

Malaysia's prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad, said that his country had often taken part in UN peacekeeping operations and that it was ready to do so in Afghanistan but wanted to study the role of the proposed stabilization force before making a commitment.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia strongly condemned the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States but had said that military strikes against Afghanistan would only cause civilian casualties and inflame Muslim public opinion.

UN officials said that other nations being considered for participation included New Zealand, -

Germany, Turkey, Bangladesh and Jordan.

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