THE face of the city of Medan has changed in the last three weeks. Ethnic Malays, Chinese, and Indians who had until then fully occupied the area, now have a new set of friends: the foreign troops. In camps and hotels the westerners are scurrying about.

Last Friday, at the air force’s military airport of Polonia, for instance, foreign soldiers could be seen busily loading aid supplies into a Hercules aircraft which was to fly to Aceh. Some