Indonesia: No Troop Deadline

As a top U.S. military official toured the area of Indonesia hardest hit by last month’s tsunami, the government said today that there was no three-month deadline for foreign troops to pull out of the country.

Indonesia, which has been uneasy about the large presence of foreign troops, created a stir last week by saying forces should be out by March 26 -- three months after the tsunami devastated parts of Aceh province.

But after a meeting with Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, Indonesian Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said Jakarta did not consider the date a deadline. “March 26 is not a deadline for involvement of foreign military personnel in the relief effort,” he said.

Sudarsono said he wanted to clarify Indonesia’s goal by saying the government aimed to accelerate relief efforts so that the country could shoulder a large part of the burden by March 26.

The defense minister made his comments as Indonesia raised its death toll by about 5,000 to 115,229. The additional deaths came from the village of Calang, on Sumatra island’s northwestern coast, the Social Affairs Ministry said. The new figure pushed the overall death toll for the Dec. 26 tsunami to more than 162,000.

The U.S. military, a leading force in relief efforts in tsunami-hit nations, said Saturday that it expected to end major work in Thailand and Sri Lanka within two weeks but probably would stay longer in Indonesia.

The United States has deployed about 15,000 service personnel, plus ships and helicopters, to deliver aid to tsunami-ravaged countries. U.S. ships have helped ferry 2.2 million pounds of food and supplies to Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh province. Helicopters have flown nearly 900 missions from the ships in two weeks.