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World armies fight for life
24/01/2005 15:18 - (SA)
Banda Aceh, Indonesia - Casting aside historical and political enmities, military forces from around the world formed an unlikely coalition of the willing following the tsunami disaster, and saved countless lives in the first month of relief efforts.
The informal alliance has grown to more than 25 nations, bringing together militaries that would otherwise never have been in the same theatre of operations.
Germany and France have steadfastly refused to help the United States in Iraq, but in Indonesia their military forces have contributed to deliver aid and provide medical relief to the people of worst-hit Aceh province.
Similarly, the Indonesian military has for five years been smarting over the role of Australian troops in helping East Timor towards independence.
Yet in Aceh, Indonesian soldiers who fought in then-occupied East Timor during the 1990s have been providing security for Australian "diggers" as they hand out purified water to thirsty locals.
And while Japan has just 20 soldiers in Indonesia, they are an advance team for a thousand-strong contingent that will arrive on January 25 in what will be the biggest single overseas Japanese military deployment since World War 2.
Other nations with troops and military hardware helping in tsunami relief efforts include Pakistan, Jordan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, India, Brunei, Britain, Russia and Canada.
Even China has had a military presence, with 16 soldiers among a medical relief team, while Bangladesh has 157 troops and two C-130 Hercules transport planes helping in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
And with 700 soldiers, Chinook and Super Puma helicopters, transport planes and two landing ship tanks, Singapore's role in helping Indonesia has been its biggest military operation since the city-state's independence in 1965.
The role of foreign militaries was essential in the immediate aftermath of the December 26 tsunamis as the fastest and most efficient means of getting aid to survivors.
Nowhere was their role more important than in Aceh, where the destruction of roads and bridges along the province's devastated west coast trapped hundreds of thousands of people without fresh water, food and medical aid.
A fleet of US navy Seahawk and Chinook helicopters dropped emergency relief supplies to isolated survivors and ferried many injured people out.
The helicopter missions were the most high-profile components of the US relief operations, which, with more than 90 aircraft, 24 ships and 15 000 troops, was one of the nation's biggest military forays into Asia since the Vietnam War.
The presence of US troops in Indonesia raised some hackles among nationalist politicians and Islamic hardliners.
And vice-president Yusuf Kalla said he wanted them out by March 26 and the "sooner the better".
While the Indonesian government quickly withdrew Kalla's deadline, foreign forces have already begun to scale back their operations as the emergency phase of relief work draws to a close.
- AFP
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