Indonesia wants foreign troops out, defends restrictions on tsunami aidAFP, January 13, 3:02 AMIndonesia told foreign troops helping tsunami victims to get out of the country soon and defended tough new restrictions on aid workers, while rich nations prepared to freeze Jakarta's debt repayments.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla said foreign troops should leave tsunami-hit Aceh province on Sumatra island as soon as they finish their relief mission, staying no longer than three months.
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The armed forces of Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States have all rushed task forces to Aceh in the wake of the December 26 disaster which killed at least 106,500 Indonesians out of a total of more than 159,000 deaths in Asia.
But their presence in Indonesian territory has been a sensitive issue for the world's largest Muslim-populated nation which has traditionally kept foreign military, particularly the United States and Australia, at arm's length. The vice president said Aceh in the near future would need foreign medical workers and engineers instead of military assistance.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050112/1/3psy7.htmlMarines scale back aid effortAP, Jan 12BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — The U.S. military faced tighter restrictions Wednesday as the Indonesian government sought to reassert control over foreign troops, relief workers and journalists in the tsunami-devastated region, which also has been the site of a rebel insurgency.
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The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is leading the U.S. military’s relief effort, steamed out of Indonesian waters Wednesday because the U.S. Navy only has permission from the Indonesians to fly aircraft into its airspace that are directly supporting the humanitarian operation, said Lt. Cmdr. John M. Daniels, spokesman for the Lincoln carrier strike group. Helicopters will still deliver aid to Sumatra’s devastated coast, however.
Indonesia declined to let the ship’s fighter pilots use its airspace for training missions. Under U.S. Navy rules, pilots of carrier-based warplanes cannot go longer than 14 days without flying or their skills are considered to have degraded too far. Since the Abraham Lincoln has been stationed off Sumatra since Jan. 1, the carrier moved out of Indonesian waters so its pilots could conduct their training flights in international airspace.
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Separatists in the Aceh region have been fighting for an independent state for decades. Indonesia’s military chief offered the rebels a cease-fire Tuesday, matching a unilateral one already declared by the insurgents.
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/Tsunami/2005/01/11/893937-ap.html
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