Acehnese want foreign troops to stay

JAKARTA: Hundreds of Acehnese living in Jakarta staged a rally in front of the United Nations (UN) mission on Wednesday to show their support for the participation of foreign troops in the Aceh relief operation.

The demonstrators said the foreign troops in Aceh had played an indispensable role in the relief operation as they were equipped with the sort of state-of-the-art equipment that was needed to help the tsunami victims, and were highly mobile.

"We want the government to allow the foreign troops to stay in Aceh," Islamuddin, one of the protesters, said, while holding aloft a banner reading "The Acehnese welcome foreign aid workers and the UN".

At the start of the relief operation, Vice President Jusuf Kalla set a March 26 deadline for all foreign troops to leave Aceh. However, Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said that no deadline had been imposed and that the foreign troops could stay as long as they felt they were needed. -- Antara