Indonesia Turns Down Gurkha Offer Of Help

London - Indonesia turned down an offer of British troops to help tsunami relief efforts because it felt it didn't need the extra manpower, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday.

Britain offered Tuesday to send 120 Gurkhas based in Brunei to Indonesia, in what would have been the first deployment of British ground troops for relief work since the pan-Asian tsunami catastrophe on December 26.

Indonesia responded Wednesday by saying that it would take two helicopters attached to the 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, but not the soldiers themselves.

Gurkhas, who are Nepalese volunteers in the British army, have been stationed in Brunei as far back as the 1960s. Speaking at a monthly press conference, Blair-said it was the Gurkhas themselves who offered to go to Indonesia with their two helicopters, and that "for the moment" Jakarta has decided it did not need the extra manpower.

"That's all that happened," said the prime minister.

He said: "At the instance of the Gurkas based in Brunei, we offered the government of Indonesia a company of Gurkhas and two helicopters attached to the Gurkhas."

"At present they (the Indonesian authorities) believe they have sufficient infantry troops on the ground, and are after airlift and transport capability and specialist expertise." -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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