Japan troops prepare to leave Aceh

Japan troops prepare to leave Aceh

Japanese troops in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province
have begun winding down their relief operation and plan to be out
by the middle of next month, a spokesman said on Monday.

Lt. Hiroji Yamashita said all Japanese forces in Aceh, on
their biggest overseas deployment since World War Two, would be
pulled out by March 16.

The first batch would leave the northern tip of Sumatra island
near the epicenter of the huge Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami it
spawned on March 4, with the most of the remainder departing
several days later.

"The main contingent will leave on March 10," Yamashita of the
Japan Self-Defense Force, told Reuters. He said 10 troops in
charge of administrative works would stay until March 16.

The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami left nearly a quarter
of a million Indonesians dead or missing and more than 400,000
people displaced from their homes.

On Monday, the Japanese closed their field hospital in the
Lamara area of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, which had been
operating for more than a month.

The makeshift tent hospital treated thousands of patients.

"I'm here to say thank you, because they have been really
good ... We will miss them," said Tjoet Anna, 36, a mother of two
children and regular visitor.

With 1,000 troops on the ground and hundreds of sailors aboard
ships off the coast, the Japanese contingent has been one of the
biggest foreign military presences doing humanitarian work in
Aceh.

It's soldiers worked with the United Nations Children's Fund
and Indonesian health ministry giving thousands of measles
vaccinations and vitamin A supplements to children. --Reuters