ASEAN troops in RI's tsunami-hit Aceh to remain: Malaysia

ASEAN troops in RI's tsunami-hit Aceh to remain: Malaysia

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

ASEAN troops carrying out relief work in Indonesia's tsunami-
battered Aceh province will be allowed to remain indefinitely,
Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak said on Monday.

"The representative of (Indonesia's military chief) Gen.
Sutarto told me that there is no deadline as such given to our
soldiers with respect to our involvement in Aceh and that they
can continue to be there until further notice," Najib told a news
conference.

He was speaking after meeting defense chiefs from fellow
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"The 26 March deadline is only for their own planning
purposes, but the important thing is that there is no such
imposition as to a specific timetable for our withdrawal from
Aceh," Najib said, adding this would also apply to troops from
other ASEAN countries.

Malaysian troops would continue humanitarian aid in Aceh "for
as long as necessary and for as long as our presence is welcomed
by them," Najib said.

More than 100 Malaysian military personnel are expected to
depart for Aceh soon to help set up a field hospital, bringing
the total number of Malaysian military and police officers there
to more than 400, Najib said.

Malaysia would also set up a relief center in Aceh that would
be able to accommodate 10,000 tsunami victims, he said.

The armed forces of Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and
the United States all rushed units to Aceh in the wake of the
December 26 tsunami disaster which killed more than 110,000
Indonesians.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla said last week that foreign troops
should leave Aceh within three months -- "in fact the sooner the
better."

But the Indonesian government announced on Sunday that foreign
forces including the U.S. Navy can continue relief operations
there beyond a March 26 deadline.

Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said the earlier demand
by Kalla was "not a deadline for involvement of foreign military
personnel".

"It is a benchmark for the Indonesian government to improve
and accelerate its relief efforts so that by March 26th the large
part of the burden of the relief efforts will be carried by the
Indonesian government and authorities on the ground," Sudarsono
said.

"Foreign military assistance, operations providing relief and
rehabilitation will be allowed to continue, albeit on a reduced
scale," he said after talks with U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz and the commander for U.S. forces in the Pacific,
Admiral Thomas Fargo.

The ASEAN defense chiefs are in Kuala Lumpur for a two-day
annual informal meeting.

The defense chiefs have agreed to "collaborate more closely
together using a hotline to communicate with one another in times
of really major disasters," Najib said.

Najib is due to meet Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill
later on Monday as Hill returns from a visit to Aceh.

An Australian embassy spokesman said Hill would be visiting a
logistics hub at a military air base at Butterworth in Malaysia's
northern Penang state. It was set up by the Australian military
to better manage the flow of aid into Aceh.