Indon president joins worshippers in tsunami-hit Aceh
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's president joined thousands of worshippers in tsunami-wracked Aceh province Friday for prayers to mark Islam's holiest day, and pledged to rebuild the region that took the full force of the Dec. 26 disaster.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he expected the thousands of international troops and aid workers providing emergency relief in the region to gradually hand over the job to Indonesians but reiterated that the government was not imposing a deadline on their departure.
Yudhoyono made the comments to reporters in Aceh after attending prayers to mark the Islamic feast day of Eid al-Adha at the 17th century Baituraman mosque in Aceh's provincial capital.
"We are now developing a master plan. Based on the plan, we will ... build infrastructure, build roads and revive the people's economy,'' he said.
"There are a lot of things to do in the coming days.''
He said the emergency phase of getting critical supplies to those in need was moving ahead but was likely to take a few months.
He sought to further play down an earlier comment by top officials who had said foreign troops must leave by March 26, calling it "a timeline, not a deadline.''
"Indonesia has to have a plan, we have to have a target,'' he said.
"After March 26, there might still be international presence - the equipment, the personnel or the expertise that are needed in order to work.''
Aceh was home to most of the dead from the tsunami, with death tolls from the disaster across 11 nations varying widely from about 158,000 to 221,000.
Banda Aceh itself lost some 40,000 residents, and thousands of uncollected bodies still lie rotting under debris across the largely devastated city.
Thousands of foreign troops, including some 15,000 U.S. military personnel, and aid workers are helping the survivors in the province.
Yudhoyono attended a morning service at the ornate five-domed Baituraman mosque, which escaped major damage in the disaster.
Parts of the mosque were used as a makeshift morgue in the days following the Dec. 26 disaster.
"Our tears are overflowing and our hearts are stinging with pain,'' preacher Syafrudin Miga told the congregation, at times breaking into tears.
"People of faith around the world are praying nonstop for Aceh. Christians are holding prayers in churches, along with Hindus and Buddhists in their places of worship.''
Eid al-Adha commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God, and coincides with the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
After the early morning service, volunteers slaughtered scores of goats and cows in the courtyard of the mosque, among them some 20 cattle Yudhoyono had donated.
The meat was then handed out to survivors of the disaster.
"I am still grieving but this is a time for celebration,'' said college student Febry Orlanda before the prayers began.
"My prayer mat is still rather damp because I just washed it as it was covered in mud from the tsunami.''
Security was tight at the mosque for Yudhoyono's trip, his third to Aceh since the tsunami struck.
Rebels have been fighting for 27 years for an independent homeland in the staunchly Islamic region.
In the wake of the disaster, the two sides agreed to an informal cease-fire to help ease the distribution of relief funds. - AP
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