LAKSAMANA.Net, January 11, 2005 04:33 AM
PKS Wants Foreign Troops Removed
Laksamana.Net - The Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has demonstrated
the extent of its compassion for the suffering survivors of the Aceh tsunamis by
demanding that foreign military personnel assisting with relief operations leave the
province within a month.
PKS acting chairman Tifatul Sembiring said Monday (10/1/05) the foreign forces
conducting humanitarian operations in Aceh in the wake of the devastating December
26 natural disaster should leave after one month in the province.
"We hope the foreign forces will not stay longer than one month in Aceh. If they wish
to stay there longer to participate in the relief efforts for the tsunami and quake
victims, they should do it under a United Nations umbrella," he was quoted as saying
by state news agency Antara.
He said foreign governments should also obtain formal permits from the Indonesian
government if they wish to continue their relief operations in Aceh.
Sembiring took over as acting chairman of PKS when the party’s founder Hidayat
Nurwahid resigned in October to concentrate on his new position as speaker of the
People's Consultative Assembly.
Legislator Effendy Choirie, a member of the Islam-oriented National Awakening Party
(PKB), also said the presence of foreign troops conducting desperately needed relief
work in Aceh must be limited.
"The presence of the foreign military personnel and their ships must be limited to a
certain period of time. It could be two months or three months," said the deputy
chairman of parliament’s Commission I on defense affairs.
A senior US Navy officer involved in the humanitarian aid mission on Monday said his
country’s troops were likely to remain in Aceh’s devastated areas for an extended
period.
"I don't see an end to this for a long, long time," Captain Larry Burt, commander of the
air wing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, was quoted as saying by the Associated
Press.
Thousands of injured and sick people languishing in refugee camps in Aceh are yet to
receive medical attention, while foreign doctors have been working around the clock at
makeshift hospitals in Banda Aceh city.
Aid workers say the relief effort is not yet sufficient due to coordination problems and
a lack of transportation infrastructure. They say it will take many months to help bury
the dead, heal the sick and wounded, and clean up the devastation that killed an
estimated 130,000 people in northern Sumatra.
The thought of US and Australian troops being in Indonesia, especially in war-torn
Aceh, with the approval of the government, would have been unthinkable a month ago.
Indonesia has been a staunch critic of the US-led war in Iraq, describing it as an
illegal act of aggression.
Some Islamic groups view Western forces with mistrust and are concerned that
Western aid groups in Aceh may be pushing a Christian agenda.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has urged the public not to be concerned by
the presence of the foreign troops, pointing out that they have no political agenda in
Indonesia and are only in Aceh to help.
The military has asked aid groups in Aceh submit lists of their international workers
and report on their movements.
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