U.S. PR chief visits Aceh market

U.S. image builder Karen Hughes lifts a baby as a Banda Aceh resident looks on. Hughes made a brief visit to Aceh on Saturday at the end of her three-day trip to Indonesia.

During her visit to the tsunami-wrecked area, the goodwill envoy strolled through a market to get a firsthand look at recovery efforts. She also mingled with traders at the local market. The traditional market was destroyed in the Dec. 26 tsunami catastrophe but was rebuilt with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Hughes, the U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs commented after the brief visit she was delighted to see hope was high in the province and the Acehnese themselves playing a major role in the rebuilding process.

Government figures put the number of people killed or missing in the disaster at 126,915, while more than 400,000 others were displaced.

The Aceh visit was a good note to end on for Hughes who came up against a critical audience in Jakarta on Friday, when she was bombarded with questions on U.S. foreign policy.

Hughes visited Indonesia as parts of efforts by the U.S. government to improve its battered image after it invaded two sovereign countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. -- Nani Afrida/The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh