U.S. military arrives in Aceh to help aid delivery
U.S. military arrives in Aceh to help aid delivery
Agencies, Banda Aceh/Jakarta
The U.S. military arrived in force in Indonesia's tsunami- devastated Aceh province on New Year's Day as relief efforts to deliver critically needed aid to stranded survivors prepared to accelerate.
Five U.S. Sea Hawk helicopters arrived at the airport at the provincial capital Banda Aceh to begin distributing aid and medical supplies to the nearly 110,000 made homeless by Sunday's massive earthquake and the powerful tsunami it triggered.
The helicopters, some of which had been gutted to make room for cargo and people, came from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group, anchored about 20 kilometers offshore, and will help clear the aid supply-line bottleneck.
Food, water and critical medical supplies began pouring into the Banda Aceh airport on Friday, but could not be moved quickly enough and began to stack up.
"We are taking supplies out of Banda Aceh and down to Meulaboh," Capt Larry Burt, commander of Carrier Air Wing Two, told Reuters in an interview.
"We're here to help and we're going to keep working until the mission is done ... We will send them to where we are told to send them. Where they say they need (aid), we will move it."
Hundreds of tsunami-survivors have gathered at the airport, captivated by the hive of activity created by the Sea Hawk helicopters, Singaporean military Super Puma helicopters and Australian and Indonesian C130 Hercules planes.
Meanwhile in Jakarta, U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia B. Lynn Pascoe said on Saturday that the U.S. relief program had also 80 trucks at its disposal to distribute aid within and around Banda Aceh.
"They are hired by the U.S. government for a month and could be extended if needs be," Pascoe told a press briefing before seeing off an Aceh-bound relief team from Halim Perdana Kusumah air base.
President George W. Bush has announced a 10-fold increase in the U.S. commitment to the relief effort for victims in Asian countries hit by the tsunamis from US$35 million to $350 million.
Of eight countries badly affected by the tsunamis, Indonesia, the worst hit, will likely get a substantial portion of the $350 million assistance.
To date the U.S. government has pledged nearly $15 million in direct humanitarian assistance to Indonesia in addition to military assistance and support.
U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell is expected to arrive here next week to lead a fact-finding delegation that would decide on the country's future relief programs for Indonesia. He will be accompanied by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother, who has experience in mitigating natural disasters.