When the second killer earthquake in the Indian Ocean in three months devastated more of Indonesia, the posttsunami relief effort already in place in Aceh province made it possible to get help quickly to stricken communities. So why is the Indonesian government putting pressure on international aid agencies and foreign troops to phase out their work in Aceh?
The UN refugee agency reluctantly pulled out of the province last month with some $33 million in aid funds still unspent while Spain has withdrawn Its 600-strong contingent of troops. Jakarta is now reported to be deciding which other civilian aid agencies are needed to stay on and which will be asked to wind up operations.
According to journalists and relief workers hundreds of thousands of refugees are still hungry and homeless in Aceh after killer waves flattened the coastal area last December and claimed more than 220,000 lives.
As Indonesia acknowledges, 70 percent of aid received for victims of the tsunami has from abroad. But the government does not want its military to be under the scrutiny of foreign troops and aid agencies in a 'politically sensitive province where it is fighting the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and trying to prevent aid reaching people in areas it considers sympathetic to the rebels.
In four such regions North Aceh, East Aceh, Pidie Aceh and South Aceh - where the bulk of the refugees had fled, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) at first refused to allow any aid distribution that was not under its direct control.
Community leaders and local NGOs who tried to distribute food or other aid directly to the people were threatened with beatings and arrest.
The co-ordinator of the local NGO People's Crisis Center told the East Timor Action Network: We know of corruption cases, like the one in Pemda, North Aceh, where local government, instead of giving urgently needed aid to refugees, passed it on to the local military commander. Even here in Banda Aceh the military was selling aid supplies through warungs (local shops)?
Already big Jakarta-based companies are being given contracts for the so-called reconstruction of Aceh. In all of this', says Zely Ariane of the Aceh solidarity group SEGERA, ' there has been no involvement of Acehnese society... Both the Jakarta and Acehnese elite are out to get as much of the aid money as they can." "Both the Jakarta and Acehnese elite are out to get as much of the aid money as they can"
In another development, the Indonesian authorities have declared that tsunami victims will not be allowed to rebuild their homes 2-3 kilometres from the coast.
This move is being widely interpreted by community leaders as land grab designed to exploit the rich natural resources of this area in partnership with multinational corporations.
One of the greatest fears of the local people, says the East Timor Action Network, is that after the departure of foreign relief agencies and journalists Aceh will be sealed off again, and they will be left to the mercy of the Indonesian military and government officials in Jakarta.
Recent peace talks between the Indonesian government and GAM in Helsinki, Finland, collapsed and the government refuses to discuss the possibility of a referendum on independence for the Acehnese people.
Although after the tsunami the Indonesian government and GAM declared a ceasefire there are reports by journalists of the army of taking advantage of post-tsunami chaos to continue military operations against GAM and attack Acehnese civilians.
Many pro-democracy organisations in Indonesia plus community groups and NGOs in Aceh itself are calling for a real ceasefire and for the whole of Acehnese society to be directly involved in all talks on peace as well as reconstruction.
But a good number of activists were among those killed in the tsunami and others who survived are for the moment too focussed on immediate humanitarian issues to give a political lead.
The Bush administration, meanwhile, using the tsunami and March earthquake as an opportunity to revive military ties with Indonesia. Washington regards the Indonesian government as a potential ally in the "war on terror", supporting its attempts to crush the mainly Muslim fighters of GAM.
Since the January visit to Jakarta by then-deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former US ambassador to Indonesia, (reported in Socialist Resistance last month)there have been strong indications that Bush wants to see the 23year US embargo on military aid to Indonesia lifted and that he intends to release funds to train Indonesian military officers. Article based on reports from Green Left Weekly, Australia, and online material from the East Timor Action Network. PIDL
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