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| Sunday, 1 May 2005 |
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Indonesia to award medal to Australian crew SYDNEY, Saturday (AFP) Indonesia said Saturday it would present the crew of Australia's HMAS Kanimbla a medal of honour for their help after the tsunami and quake disasters, in the first such award to foreign military staff. The navy's Kanimbla, which lost nine of its crew in a helicopter crash on the quake-hit island of Nias on April 2, returned to Sydney Saturday after spending four months carrying out aid work in Indonesia. It was initially dispatched to Aceh province after the December 26 tsunami and then redeployed, as it was homeward bound, to help in the aftermath of the earthquake on Nias. Indonesian ambassador Imron Cotan told the 300-odd crew and hundreds of family members gathered at the Garden Island naval base that his country deeply appreciated their work and shared their grief at the loss of their shipmates. "Indonesia is privileged to bestow upon them and to surviving members of Kanimbla ... a medal ... the first of its kind to be given to non-Indonesian citizens," Cotan said. "I salute Kanimbla's men and women." The nine crew killed in the Sea King helicopter crash were posthumously awarded a medal of honour this month during visit by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. |
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