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 News from Around the Americas | January 2005 
9.0 On Ungrateful Scale - Ingrates!
 New York Daily News
The Indonesian government yesterday showed its appreciation to U.S. soldiers who have been risking their lives helping tsunami victims by ordering them to get out of the country by the end of March.
 "Three months are enough," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the official Antara news agency. "In fact, the sooner [they leave] the better."
Kalla's government also forced the Abraham Lincoln, from which Navy pilots have flown dozens of food supply missions to the hard-hit Aceh Province, to steam out of Indonesian waters because they refused to let U.S. pilots fly training missions in their air space.
The Indonesians also refused to let the Marines coming ashore rebuild roads, establish a base camp or carry arms.
Lynn Pascoe, the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, reacted to Kalla's ingratitude by declaring that American troops will help as long as they were needed and "not a minute later."
But in Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan demanded "further clarification from Indonesia about what this means."
"We hope that the government of Indonesia and the military in Indonesia will continue the strong support they have provided to the international relief efforts so far," he said.
Although most Indonesians have expressed thanks for U.S. help, nationalist politicians in the world's most populous Muslim country have been grumbling about "American interlopers."
Indonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is a former general in a country that has been under martial law for much of its recent history.
Always wary of America, Indonesia reluctantly allowed U.S. soldiers in when it became clear it could not deal with the aftermath of the Dec. 26 tsunami on its own.
Yudhoyono's government also moved to reassert control over wave-walloped Aceh by ordering aid workers and journalists to declare their travel plans - or face expulsion.
"It is important to note that the government would be placed in a very difficult position if any foreigner who came to Aceh to assist in the aid effort was harmed through the acts of irresponsible parties," the government said in a statement.
The Indonesian government was referring to the rebels who have largely stayed out of the way as the international rescue missions have been mounted. |
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