Indonesia death toll rises

Indonesia today increased its tsunami death toll by 5,000 – pushing the worldwide toll from the December 26 disaster to more than 162,000 people – as the nation’s defence minister said there is no three-month deadline for foreign troops helping in the massive relief efforts to leave.

“We would like to emphasise that March 26 is not a deadline for involvement of foreign military personnel in the relief effort,” Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said after meeting US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz in Jakarta.

His comments come after several Indonesian officials, including the vice president, expressed unease about the number of foreign troops helping with aid efforts and said the soldiers should leave by the end of March.

Wolfowitz, who also toured the disaster-hit Sumatran coast during his visit, has voiced pride in the American aid operation but said Washington wants to hand over relief work to Indonesia and other affected nations as soon as possible.

In the meantime, he hinted he believes improving military links would help bolster democracy in Indonesia under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

“We need to think about how we can strengthen this newly elected democratic government, strengthen the civilian defence minister … to help build the kind of defence institution that will ensure in the future that the Indonesian military, like our military, is a loyal function of a democratic government,” said Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to Jakarta.

Canada’s Prime Minister Paul Martin was in Thailand, where he met members of a Canadian police forensic squad helping identify the dead in beach towns levelled by the killer waves.

“It’s very emotional on the one hand, but on the other hand we must really recognise all those – Thai and Canadian – who have worked so hard here,” he said.

Martin toured disaster areas and talked with Thai officials to learn more about what his country can do to help. He planned to also visit Sri Lanka and India.

A massive earthquake off Sumatra three weeks ago spawned huge waves that killed people in 11 countries. With tens of thousands homeless, aid groups stepped up campaigns to prevent malaria, measles, cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other diseases in teeming refugee camps across the disaster zone.

Tetanus has been detected in 67 people in Indonesia’s hard-hit Aceh province with the number expected to rise, said Doctors Without Borders. Tetanus has a mortality rate of up to 25 %.

More aid teams were headed to the ravaged coastal city of Meulaboh, including doctors who will establish a mobile clinic, said Roberta Rossi, a spokeswoman for USAID.

And, a 20-member Japanese medical team arrived in Aceh today to prepare for the Japanese military’s biggest-ever overseas relief effort. About 1,000 troops - from the army, navy and air force – planned to stay about three months, said Col. Takeshi Moriichi, commander of the medical corps for the Japanese Self-Defence Forces.

Adding to Indonesian sensitivity about foreign troops, the bulk of the devastation was in Aceh, where separatist rebels have been fighting against the central government for years.

Neighbouring Malaysia has voiced hopes that its troops will be permitted to remain in Aceh for as long as possible, to help build a relief centre with a hospital and a school.

Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand observed a minute’s silence for the tsunami’s victims at the precise time the earthquake struck three weeks ago - 11:59am on the Australian east coast (00.59am Irish Time) and 1:59pm in New Zealand.

Bells tolled and flags flew at half mast. “Three weeks ago, the world began to watch in horror as a catastrophe without precedent in recent times unfolded around the Indian Ocean,” said New Zealand’s Prime Minister Helen Clark.

The aftermath of the “catastrophe has also seen human beings reach out to support each other on an unprecedented scale,” she said.

“Across religions, faiths, and beliefs, across ethnicities and national boundaries, the common humanity of people has shone through at this time of great adversity for so many.”