It's almost two months after the Indian Ocean Tsunami wiped out much of Banda Aceh in Indonesia. But while many reports have focused on the progress of rebuilding efforts, the long-troubled province is experiencing much more subtle shifts. Australian and New Zealand medical professionals who've been providing aid are preparing for a final departure in a few weeks and have returned a ward in Banda Aceh's main hospital to Indonesian control. But some Acehnese aren't ready to move on.

Presenter/Interviewer: Geoff Thompson

Speakers: Brigadier Dave Chalmers, Australian forces commander in Aceh; young Indonesian in Aceh; Colonel Bambang Suryanto, in charge of military recruitment drive in Aceh; Marlinda Zahra, magic man client

(Sound of Indonesian singing)

Thompson: A song of farewell to Australian and New Zealand medics from Indonesian Nurses at the Infectious Diseases Ward of the Zainoel Abidin Hospital in Banda Aceh. It's the city's main medical facility where Prime Minister John Howard was welcomed during his brief tour of Aceh two weeks ago. Today however, it's a time to say goodbye, as Australian medics hand the running of the ward over to the Indonesian staff they have been working with to prevent a wave of disease in the devastated province. But the man who commands Australian forces in Aceh, Brigadier Dave Chalmers can't say exactly when his troops will be going home.

Chalmers: Well, there's not a firm date in a sense that I won't be downing tools on a particular day and taking a thousand people away from Aceh. We will be gradually reducing our commitment as we can hand over the capability to other people.

Thompson: When Australian troops leave and other foreign forces wind down their humanitarian commitments, the Indonesian military will assume predominant responsibility for Aceh's relief and reconstruction effort. This week the Indonesian military has been on a recruitment drive in Aceh, and there was no shortage of young men looking for work.

Young lad: Many people need jobs, especially the young people, and now they have opened this, people who are interested can apply.

Thompson: In charge is Colonel Bambang Suryanto and he emphasises that recruitment is going on all over Indonesia and not just in devastated Aceh.

Suryanto: We are offering this opportunity especially in this Aceh area, to make them soldiers of Aceh – to develop their own area so they can defend their own country.

Thompson: For other Acehnese however, the search for their dead and missing is still a full time job.

I want to ask about my family, says 25 year old Marlinda Zahra, if they're still alive or not and if they are, where to find them. With a crowd of about twenty mostly women, she has come to see a dukun, one of Indonesia's magic men, who specialises in looking at photos of missing relatives. With long hair and long nails, he calls himself Abdul Hafidh Al Fairus Al Bagdad.

Bagdad: People come here because they don't know whether their families are alive or dead, says Mr Bagdad. Sometimes they just want to know where the dead are buried – in which mass grave – that's why they come here.

Thompson: On their knees, his devotees give him money, and at least some leave satisfied. Rafikah triumphantly holds up a photo of her cousin, a very young baby girl.

Rafikah: Thank God, I'm so happy that I've still got a cousin.

Thompson: I got goosebumps hearing it. I asked other people and they say that she isn't alive anymore, but here he said that she is. And up and down Aceh's pulverised coast, there's every chance that Mr Bagdad's claim can never be proven wrong.