Aid groups say visitors hampering relief efforts

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Aid groups complained yesterday that dignitaries visiting to look at the devastation have choked the tiny main airport in Banda Aceh and hampered distribution of relief supplies for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The airport was temporarily shut last week for the visits of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, for example.

"It slows things down," said Maj. Murad Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan's Tsunami Relief Task Force.

U.S. officials disputed the allegation, saying Powell's plane took off immediately after dropping him off Wednesday so it would not be in the way. He toured the area by helicopter, and Tim Gerhardson, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, said aid shipments continued to flow during that time.

A delegation of U.S. congressmen traveling to Banda Aceh yesterday came by helicopter from the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln so they would not disrupt other flights.

U.S. may send more troops for relief effort

U-TAPAO, Thailand — Some 16,500 U.S. military personnel are taking part in the relief effort, and the number may increase, a U.S. Marine Corps officer said yesterday.

"I don't think the maximum number has been determined yet. The requirements are changing day by day so people are being deployed based on that," said Lt. Col. Robert Krieg, one of the lead planners of the aid operation.

The U.S. force includes 11,000 sailors and Marines on ships delivering aid off the west coast of Indonesia and personnel in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Okinawa, Japan.

Other countries have also sent forces, including India, which has 16,000 military personnel in the aid effort. The United States, Britain, Australia and Japan are running a joint aid operation at the U-Tapao Royal Thai Naval Air Base, which was a base for U.S. B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War.

Krieg said the distribution of aid and equipment to Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka through U-Tapao was based on requests from those countries, the hardest hit by the tsunami. "Our level of support is tailored to exactly what it is they're asking for and no more," he said.

Indonesia on alert for rebel activity

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Indonesia's military has stepped up patrols for separatist rebels in tsunami-stricken northern Sumatra island after isolated skirmishes in recent days raised fears that the conflict could hamper the relief effort.

Officials from the United States and Australia, which both have unarmed military teams helping the massive aid effort, said yesterday that they had assessed potential threats and were satisfied that Indonesian forces were providing adequate security.

Separatist rebels in the fiercely independent northern Sumatran province of Aceh have been fighting a low-intensity war against Indonesian troops for an independent homeland for more than 20 years. Indonesian forces are accused of brutality in the region and are generally hated.

The Free Aceh Movement declared a unilateral cease-fire after the tsunami hit, and the military said it would not target suspected rebels during the emergency.

But clashes have broken out in recent days.

Huge food effort ramping up in region

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Staggered by the scale of the tsunami disaster, international aid officials yesterday announced plans to feed as many as 2 million survivors each day for the next six months, focusing particularly on young children, pregnant women and nursing mothers.

World Food Program (WFP) Executive Director James Morris said the operation likely would cost $180 million.

"Many of the places where we work are remote, detached and their infrastructure has been dramatically compromised," Morris said. "We will be distributing food ... by trucks, by barges, by ships, by helicopters, by big planes."

He said the agency has now dispatched enough food in Sri Lanka to help feed 750,000 people there for 15 days.

Jeff Taft-Dick, WFP country director in Sri Lanka, said that was a critical milestone "because there is now enough food around the country to feed everyone who needs it."

Morris said the agency was feeding 150,000 people in Indonesia and expected that to increase to 400,000 within a week and possibly reach as high as a million eventually.

Threatened turtles washed from pool

PHUKET, Thailand — About 20 of the 30 breeding olive ridley turtles being raised at the Phuket Marine Biological Center were washed away in the tsunami.

The sea turtles, listed as a threatened species, were part of a breeding program and were being raised in a concrete pool just 18 feet from the ocean.

In the tsunami-affected region, the olive ridley — which have broad heart-shaped shells — breed only on the Andaman Sea coast and nearly became extinct in Thailand because their eggs were smuggled for food. Their numbers fell from 5,000 nests 50 years ago to fewer than 200 today.

"The environment has changed, with debris and garbage strewn on the seashore and sediment in the sea," a scientist at the center said.

"These are not good conditions for turtles to lay eggs."