Foreign troops could leave tsunami zone in a month: UN
Foreign troops could leave tsunami zone in a month: UN
Agence France-Presse, Bangkok
Most foreign troops operating in tsunami-devastated areas, such as Indonesia's Aceh province, could be home in a month, the UN head of tsunami coordination efforts Margareta Wahlstrom said on Friday.
As relief operations shifted from emergency airlifts to regular land and sea deliveries, the need for foreign troops was rapidly diminishing, Wahlstrom told reporters.
"In a number of weeks from now -- it's not firmly set yet but possibly in another month -- the military will be able to phase out," Wahlstrom said, while praising the efforts of international forces.
Wahlstrom did not say whether controversy surrounding foreign soldiers in Aceh was behind the push to transfer relief deliveries to civilians.
Some Indonesian politicians and Islamic hardliners have criticized the presence of foreign forces in Aceh, where clashes between government soldiers and separatists continue.
Indonesia's army said on Thursday it had killed 120 separatist rebels in the past two weeks in the tsunami-devastated province despite pledges by both sides to cease fighting to focus on relief efforts.
Wahlstrom said the pullout would not affect the security of relief workers as international forces had only been engaged in humanitarian operations.
"Our situation has not changed in Aceh, and we do not have any security concerns," she said, adding the withdrawal was also part of efforts underway to move from emergency aid to long-term reconstruction.
"We are now looking at phase two of the operation which has already started now and this is a stabilization period to assist people to settle down a bit and try to contribute to job generation," she said.
She also warned that the death toll -- currently close to 222,000 people across the Indian Ocean -- would continue to climb because in many cases whole families of 50 to 100 people had been wiped out, leaving no survivor to report the missing or the dead.
"If there is no one left to say I have lost half my family, it will take a long time before the communities get together again and really identify where all their relatives are," said Wahlstrom.
"This will be a process that will go on for some time before we reach a reasonable number that we can accept," she said.