INDONESIA: DEPUTY U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PAUL WOLFOWITZ SAYS U.S. FORCES WILL STAY ON TO HELP REBUILD SHATTERED COMMUNITIES IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED AREAS
Record ID:
222920
INDONESIA: DEPUTY U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PAUL WOLFOWITZ SAYS U.S. FORCES WILL STAY ON TO HELP REBUILD SHATTERED COMMUNITIES IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED AREAS
- Title: INDONESIA: DEPUTY U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PAUL WOLFOWITZ SAYS U.S. FORCES WILL STAY ON TO HELP REBUILD SHATTERED COMMUNITIES IN TSUNAMI AFFECTED AREAS
- Date: 15th January 2005
- Summary: (U4) BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA (JANUARY 15, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. LV/SLV/SV OF U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENCE, PAUL WOLFOWITZ ASSISTING SOLDIERS TO LOAD AID ON TO HELICOPTER (5 SHOTS) 0.25 2. SLV/MCU WOLFOWITZ WALKS INTO NEWS BRIEFING; PHOTOGRAPHER (2 SHOTS) 0.33 3. MCU (English) WOLFOWITZ SAYING: "We don't have a plan, other than to try as quickly as we can to hand over responsibility to others and especially to the Indonesian government as they are ready to take that on and I think that the date that you mentioned is more of a target than A deadline. The goal though is for Indonesia to be self sufficient or at least as self sufficient as possible." 1.06 4. SLV JOURNALISTS LISTENING 1.09 5. MCU (English) WOLFOWITZ SAYING: "It's much too early. Right now we are dealing with the immediate aftermath, we are dealing with people who may be running out of food and water, we are dealing with possible disease. Certainly there is an opportunity here for the people of Aceh to find that their government, the Indonesian government is concerned about their welfare, takes care of their welfare. I think that if we can achieve what we want to achieve, I mean what the whole world wants to achieve for the people of Aceh in this crisis, It's bound to have a good effect on relations between Aceh and the rest of Indonesia." 1.56 6. SV JOURNALISTS LISTENING 2.00 7. MCU (English) WOLFOWITZ SAYING: "I think it would be good for everybody if the Indonesian government had, the Indonesian military had some of the capacity that has deteriorated. We would like to see how to fix that. In any case the magnitude of this disaster, however, exceeds the capacity of any country to deal with and I think help would have been required no matter what." 2.28 8. LV WOLFOWITZ SPEAKING AT NEWS BRIEFING 2.32 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 30th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA936DCJHMY6S0L8V32X6UY3C5B
- Story Text: Deputy U.S. Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz says
U.S. forces will stay on to help rebuild shattered communities in tsunami affected areas.
U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said
U.S. military forces, in the forefront of the Indian Ocean
tsunami emergency relief effort, will stay on to help
rebuild shattered communities on Saturday (January 15, 2005).
Speaking to reporters after taking a helicopter tour of
Indonesia's Aceh province, worst hit by the December 26
earthquake and tsunami it spawned, Wolfowitz said he was
shocked at what he saw.
"The goal though is for Indonesia to be self sufficient
or at least as self sufficient as possible," he said.
Wolfowitz was ambassador to Indonesia in the late 1980s
and remembered Aceh as verdant landscape when he visited it
at that time.
He said one of the goals during his visit to Aceh was
to assess what needs to be done in the reconstruction phase
of the U.S. military relief effort.
"Right now we are dealing with the immediate aftermath,
we are dealing with people who may be running out of food
and water, we are dealing with possible disease," he said.
The Pentagon has deployed some 15,000 servicemen aboard
a fleet of naval vessels carrying nearly 60 helicopters to
deliver emergency aid to tsunami-ravaged countries around
the Indian Ocean rim, mostly to Aceh. Almost all of the 110,000
InDonesians killed in the calamity, two-thirds of the 162,000 fatalities in the whole region, were in Aceh on the northern
tip of Sumatra island.
In Thailand earlier on Saturday, Wolfowitz said the
United States will pull its forces out of tsunami relief
operations as soon as is feasible and has no problems with
Indonesia setting a deadline.
Indonesia, by imposing an end-of-March target for the
withdrawal of foreign forces who rushed to help the
survivors in Aceh, was setting a goal for its takeover of
aid operations, Wolfowitz said.
Wolfowitz was due to fly to Jakarta on Saturday night
and is expected to discuss closer military ties with
Indonesian officials at meetings on Monday (January 17).
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