Indonesia's tsunami death toll rises

The emergency relief phase is nearly over in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province and foreign militaries should scale back operations, the government said yesterday as it raised its death toll by 7,000.

But four weeks after giant waves killed as many as 234,000 people across the Indian Ocean region, workers are still pulling hundreds of bodies from the mud and rubble each day and aid organisations say they are struggling to reach isolated areas.

Indonesia's Health Ministry said yesterday 173,981 people died on Sumatra island, up from 166,320. Most of the deaths occurred in Aceh province, where Indonesia's chief social welfare minister, Alwi Shihab, said civilian relief workers will now be more useful than foreign troops.

"I think that is only logical (that they scale down), not only the Americans but the Singaporeans as well. The Singaporeans are bringing in more engineers and civilians and withdrawing military," he told reporters as he inspected preparations for a refugee relocation camp in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

The US military and other foreign troops have been providing the backbone of aid distribution operations on Aceh's ravaged west coast using helicopters off two aircraft carriers.

But the presence of foreign troops, particularly the Americans, has been a sensitive issue for authorities in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Indonesian forces have been battling separatist rebels for decades in the gas-rich province on the western side of the Strait of Malacca shipping lane. Before the disaster, Aceh had been closed to foreign aid workers and journalists.

The United Nations asked Indonesia not to attach a deadline to the presence of foreign troops after Vice President Jusuf Kalla said they should be gone in three months.

While Indonesia has toned down talk of a deadline, it has made clear it wants foreign troops to wind up operations soon.

"The emergency stage is almost behind us, so the military will no longer be as effective to give their contribution. Civilians are needed," Mr Shihab said.

"We are opening up isolated areas through ground transportation, so we don't need more helicopters to fly."

UN officials say helicopters operated by US and other militaries remain key to reaching isolated pockets of people.

Relief workers in Aceh said their work was far from over and they were preparing to take on more of the burden.