Aust troops head home from Aceh

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Thursday March 24, 10:54 AM
Aust troops head home from Aceh
The last Australian military personnel in the Indonesian province of Aceh will head home today, three months after a devastating tsunami hit the region.
Australian troops have spent the past three months clearing mud and rubble, transporting emergency supplies, repairing water systems and operating a field hospital for the injured.
Before the tsunami hit the province, it had been officially off limits to foreigners, with the Indonesian military engaged in a long-running conflict with Acehnese separatists.
Now with the emergency phase of the relief operation declared over, Indonesia wants all foreign military forces out of the province by the end of the week.
At the peak of the aid effort, Australia had 1,000 troops on the ground in Aceh.
Back-breaking
The work for Australian troops has often been dirty and back-breaking.
The military's trucks and earth-movers have frequently had to contend with impassable mud and debris.
And then there has been the death, the injuries and the anguish of survivors.
Despite those obstacles the Australian military has completed its emergency mission within the three-month timeframe set by the Indonesian Government.
Today, the final remnants of the Australian contingent will board the amphibious assault ship HMAS Kanimbla for the journey home.
Thus, the Australian force will have officially vacated the province ahead of Indonesia's Saturday deadline.
Aid workers
Initially, Indonesia required aid workers to leave by the same day. But it lifted that edict as the magnitude of the problem sank in.
Instead, the Government is asking the more than 160 foreign aid agencies in Aceh to formally register so it can assess h"