US military sees its tsunami work winding down

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The US military, a leading force behind relief efforts in tsunami-hit nations, said it expected to end major work in Thailand and Sri Lanka within two weeks but to stay longer in Indonesia.

More shopping markets reopened, fishermen received new boats and even the sea was given a clean-up as people in the Indian Ocean region set about repairing the damage from the December 26 tsunami and restoring normal life.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz flew over Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province, where the tsunami killed about two-thirds of the total global death toll of more than 162,000, and told reporters he was shocked at the devastation.

"I thought I was prepared for it, and I honestly wasn't -- the enormous extent of it, the complete desolation," he said.

US military commanders briefed Wolfowitz, saying Thailand and Sri Lanka would soon be able to cope on their own.

"We see ourselves in a position to make that transition in a week or two," Lieutenant General Robert Blackman told Wolfowitz at U-tapao Royal Thai Naval base south of Bangkok.

Officers said it would take slightly longer in Indonesia.

The United States has deployed some 15,000 servicemen, ships and helicopters to deliver emergency aid to tsunami-ravaged countries round the Indian Ocean, mostly to Aceh.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is sensitive about having a large multinational military presence in Aceh, an area riven by a separatist conflict, and wants US, Japanese, Australian and other forces to leave by April.

Wolfowitz, US ambassador to Indonesia in the late 1980s, said Washington had no problem with Jakarta setting a deadline because it was a goal to take over all aid work.

"We don't have a plan other than to (work) as quickly as we can to hand over responsibility to others, and especially to the Indonesian government," he said. "Our goal is to put ourselves out of business as quickly as possible."

UN officials say US helicopters have been vital in getting aid to remote areas where the tsunami washed away roads, bridges and airstrips. Washington views aid efforts as essential to its war against terrorism and regional security in Asia.

Wolfowitz, due to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other Indonesian officials on Sunday, said he hoped the goodwill shown in helping tsunami victims would reap some political capital.

In Aceh's capital Banda Aceh, aftershocks shook houses, sending residents fleeing their homes yet again.

Some 3000 tsunami survivors are being hired for US$3.30 ($4.73) a day to clean up rubble in the city under a UN-funded programme.

The UN refugee agency is distributing thousands of tents, mostly on Aceh's northwest coast. But aid workers say relatively few of the 700,000 displaced in Aceh live like refugees as most turn to extended families.

In Sri Lanka, where 30,000 were killed by the tsunami, the government signalled reconstruction was under way by handing 60 modest fibreglass boats to fishermen.

There are plans to replace half of the estimated 18,500 vessels washed away or smashed to pieces by tsunami.

Others tried to help themselves. Some fishermen patched up their boats and farmers worked to stop their land being damaged by the tsunami's salt water.

UN staff say there is no sign of diseases breaking out in tsunami-hit countries that also include India, Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar and East African states.

On India's Andaman and Nicobar islands traumatised survivors were given counselling to deal with what they lived through.

A hush descended among dozens of people huddled on plastic sheets in one camp for the homeless as a relief worker shouted into a microphone.

"If you can't sleep at night or are fearful of loud noises that remind you of the tsunami, there is help," the worker said. "Doctors are here to help you. Come to the medical room."

Within minutes, men, women and children had crowded into a classroom where mental health doctors were on hand.

"My son gets scared very easily after the tsunami. He hardly speaks any more and is always holding my arm," schoolteacher Swaran Rekha told one doctor of her 6-year-old.

The remote island chain includes stone-age tribes, some of whom believe a giant boar-like animal sleeping below them has been turning on its sides and caused the earthquake off Indonesia that triggered the tsunami.

"Some people are saying these are the last days of the world," said one refugee, declining to be named.

In Thailand, where many foreign tourists were among the 5300 dead, around 300 volunteer divers scoured the sea floor and prized coral reefs to clear debris around Phuket island so tourism can restart.

Two Buddhist monks sailed out to bless the divers and pray for peace for the spirits of the dead.

UN environment chief Klaus Toepfer said an international disaster reduction conference in Japan next week should forge an agreement on a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean region.

The meeting should also outline how the system could be extended to all seas and oceans across the globe and to all forms of natural and man-made disasters, he said.

"We must ensure that the proposed Indian Ocean early-warning system does not ... simply lie on the shelf gathering dust," said Toepfer, head of the United Nations Environment Programme.

- REUTERS