Indonesia wants foreign troops out, defends restrictions on tsunami aid
[KLP Note: Wonder what Indonesia would do if the US just announced they were pulling out of the relief effort and would go to other countries where their help was more welcome? And, while they were announcing that, made sure that the citizens of Indonesia knew exactly why the US was pulling out?
Does the Indonesian government really care about their people? They announced tonight a MUCH larger dead list....210,000 dead from Indonesia alone. One would think that the Indonesian government would be grateful indeed for as much help as they could muster.]
Thursday January 13, 3:02 AM
sg.news.yahoo.com
AFP Photo
Indonesia 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.
"Three months are enough. In fact, the sooner the better," Kalla was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.
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.
United Nations officials struggling to coordinate a massive relief operation have welcomed their participation, particularly to deliver aid to isolated coastlines accessible only by sea or air.
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.
"Foreign troops are no longer needed," he said.
Kalla's comments came after the country's military imposed sweeping new restrictions on foreign relief workers operating in Aceh, claiming they were in danger from rebels waging a long-running separatist war.
But an Indonesian doctor whose ordeal at the hands of rebels has been used to justify the government restrictions disputed the official version of the incident.
Mulia Hasyimi, the head of Aceh's health office, confirmed he was seized by the rebels, but told AFP he was not shot and his time in captivity lasted less than an hour, contrary to government claims he was reputedly held for several days and shot.
Analysts have said they believe the government move was an attempt to reassert the military's control over the province, an accusation the government has denied.
Senior officials said foreign journalists would also be confined to major towns in the province, closing a post-disaster window of press freedom in the region which was locked down almost two years ago during a military offensive.
Indonesian troops have already begun accompanying United Nations missions to help victims of the tsunami and liaison officers are to be posted on the scores of foreign navy ships and military and civilian aircraft bringing in thousands of tonnes of emergency supplies.
Despite statements from Free Aceh Movement rebels, known as GAM, pledging the safety of volunteers, Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said the government was concerned attacks on aid staff could scare off foreign assistance.
The emergency phase of the tsunami relief effort in Aceh is not moving fast enough and is likely to last three more months, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's special humanitarian envoy said Wednesday.
Margareta Wahlstrom said relief work was progressing at a comparable pace to other tsunami-hit countries, given that the scale of destruction in Indonesia was so much greater, but that was still not fast enough.
Wahlstrom said she remained concerned with inadequate coordination among all groups taking part in the relief effort.
"There are a lot of resources, many organisations here. What we have to do is ensure better interfacing. That's our priority. Things need to move a little faster," she said.
However she said new government regulations imposed on foreign aid workers and journalists in Aceh province were not impeding the relief effort.
"I don't see these as restrictions. They are not saying you cannot go. They are saying, let us know when you go," Wahlstrom said.
Meanwhile, government creditors in the Paris Club of wealthy nations were set to agree at a meeting in the French capital Wednesday on freezing debt repayments by countries hit by the disaster.
Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Seychelles "will be the three countries I think which will accept this proposition," French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard told French radio Radio France Internationale.
Other countries affected, like Thailand and Malaysia, have "a lower level of indebtedness than the others and do not want their credit rating to be downgraded on the international financial markets," he explained.
Indonesia's foreign debt comes to about 132 billion dollars, and the country is looking at three billion dollars in payments this year to service that debt.
In Sri Lanka, an aid package estimated at about three billion dollars was being worked out as the island seeks to recover from the disaster which left more than 30,000 dead across the country.
Officials from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency were in talks with the Sri Lankan government to work out the reconstruction plan.
On Tuesday, the United Nations secured 717 million dollars in record time for tsunami victims in Asia -- 73 percent of a 977-million-dollar appeal launched last week to meet immediate needs in the next six months.
Some nine billion dollars has been pledged worldwide in short and long term aid after the disaster.
The figure, obtained by an AFP count, includes government money, donations pledged in an unprecedented outpouring of global public sympathy -- "humanity at its best," Egeland said -- as well as debt relief and loans. |
