Why are we politicizing this? Money pledgeddoes not equal supplies, and benefits on the ground.Seems to me that the US,Austrialian and Thai military are on the ground getting supplies to the affected.
As usual most people on this site are talking shit,while the US is acting.
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Inonesia's friction with US forgotten in race to help
By Alan Sipress and Noor Huda Ismail in Banda Aceh
January 5, 2005
Rear Admiral Doug Crowder of the US Navy was having trouble making out the words of his Indonesian counterpart, Major-General Bambang Dharmono, over the roar of the two US Seahawk helicopters parked behind them on the military airstrip.
The silvery haired admiral moved closer, his hands still on his hips but his face now within 30 centimetres of the camouflage-clad Indonesian. They were comparing notes on the relief airlifted into Aceh for victims of the tsunami. Admiral Crowder could still not hear.
So he bowed his head slightly, putting his ear up to General Dharmono's mouth. Then he placed his left hand on the Indonesian's shoulder.
The image would have been unthinkable two weeks ago.
The US military is now undertaking a big operation in close co-ordination with the Indonesian armed forces at a time when Washington still maintains a ban, originally dating from 1992 and extended in 1999, on most forms of military co-operation between the countries because of human rights concerns.
Indonesia, for its part, has welcomed the US military in Aceh, where until last month most foreigners were barred because of deep Indonesian fears about possible outside help to Acehnese rebels waging a long struggle for independence.
Besides the joint planning of these operations, Indonesian marines have been flying on some of the Seahawks, helping maintain order when refugees throng the helicopters seeking aid.
Military officers on both sides acknowledged they could not have imagined such close cooperation, especially in such a politically sensitive province.
Admiral Crowder said later that he expected the joint efforts would improve the prospects for resuming full military ties between the countries.
"There's nothing that focuses co-operation like a huge task. This would be one of those huge tasks," he said.
The US Administration has sought to restore military links, in large part to help fight terrorism. But Congress has repeatedly blocked these efforts because of unhappiness over Indonesia's failure to hold its military accountable for militia killings in East Timor, orchestrated by the security forces, after it voted for independence in 1998.
Some members of Congress also remain concerned about the possible involvement of Indonesian soldiers in a 2002 ambush that killed two Americans and an Indonesian who worked for the US mining company Freeport in Papua.
Captain B. Junair, 30, an Indonesian helicopter pilot, said the Americans had invited him to inspect the controls of their Seahawks. Pinching the chest of his flight suit with both hands, he proudly displayed the yellow eagle patch that a US pilot had given him.
But he also harboured fears about US motives for coming to Indonesia. "There is a crab behind the stone," Captain Junair quipped, repeating a Javanese saying.
He noted that the US has been flying reconnaissance aircraft from a base in Thailand to photograph large swathes of Aceh. US officers said the aircraft were mapping destruction along roads and bridges and using infrared sensors to locate refugees in the mountains.
Indonesians have long been concerned about the presence of US forces in an area that Indonesia considers its domain of influence. When Admiral Thomas Fargo, commander of US Pacific Command, suggested early last year that he might put marines on fast vessels to guard against terrorism in the strategic Straits of Malacca, Indonesian officials objected vigorously.
The presence of Australian forces also strikes a nerve. Australian peacekeepers were deployed to East Timor before its vote for independence, and many Indonesians continue to blame them for the secession of the former Indonesian province.
But in Banda Aceh not only are Australian C-130 aircraft now landing at the airbase, but Australian military trucks are driving in the streets.
The Washington Post
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03-01-05, 11:01 PM
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