U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Indonesia

[gp]

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A U.S. helicopter with 10 people on board crashed near the Banda Aceh airport Monday while on a tsunami-relief operation, a U.S. military spokesman said.

It was not yet known if anybody was killed or injured, said Joe Plenzler, a U.S. military spokesman in Medan, 250 miles southeast of Banda Aceh.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050110/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_helicopter_crash

[quaoar]

1. Apparently no one was killed

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A U.S. helicopter with 10 people on board crashed near the Banda Aceh airport Monday while on a tsunami-relief operation, a U.S. military spokesman said.

It was not yet known if anybody was killed or injured, said Joe Plenzler, a U.S. military spokesman in Medan, 250 miles southeast of Banda Aceh.
The SH60 helicopter crashed in a rice paddy about 500 yards from the airport in Banda Aceh, the main city on Indonesia’s tsunami-battered Sumatra island, as it was trying to land, he said.

“There was no fire ball but a little smoke,” he said. “It landed on its side.”

A Singapore air force officer, Andre Nabaison, said he thought all 10 on board the chopper survived. He was not sure about injuries.

[jmcgowanjm]

2. Think these guys are ignorant of E.Timor and the US role?

One major aid
agency said its staff had been
ordered not to fly in U.S. helicopter

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2981492

[cliss]

3. I wonder what the political atmosphere is in

Banda Aceh? I'd say our reputation preceded us, in this event.

I wonder if the chopper was shot down?

[jmcgowanjm]

4. Journalists told to keep quiet on Aceh skirmish

AUSTRALIAN journalists who witnessed a
confrontation between Indonesian soldiers and
alleged separatists in tsunami-ravaged Sumatra yesterday
were ordered to leave the area and warned not to report on
the incident.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11873415%255E2703,00.html

Everything has to serve the Centre, and anything that
deviates from this ideology of the unitary state is bound to
be attacked and treated with all kinds of human rights
violations. That is the problem of Indonesia. It sees itself
and those in government always see themselves as running
a unitary state. That is why they reject East Timor’s demand
for independence. West Papua’s demand to independence,
and Aceh’s very strong feeling, especially now, that it has
the right for self-determination, and this I think is something
that the government in Jakarta cannot countenance”.
(Asian Conference on Aceh/Bangkok 24/07/99).

 For Indonesian leaders, not only that the people of Aceh
cannot be allowed to have any freedom in their own
homeland as most other Indonesians are now
enjoying, especially in Java, they must be prevented from
even speaking abroad of their suffering.

http://acehnet.tripod.com/begin.htm