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NEWS & LETTERS, May-June 2005Acheh still suffers from tsunami impactOver three months after the tsunami devastated Acheh on Dec. 26, survivors are still suffering from inadequate food, medical care, and shelter. On top of that, people are suffering anew from repeated earthquakes. An early warning system was announced after the tsunami but was not put into effect. With each new earthquake, the people run in chaotic terror toward higher ground, without any plan, announcement or direction from officials. This must be causing great damage to already traumatized people. There has been no rebuilding, and no building at all except for military barracks. Indonesia intends to force the refugees to occupy the barracks, under the watchful eye of the same military that has been oppressing them for years. All of Indonesia’s plans for reconstruction are without consideration for what the Achenese want--which is especially to rebuild their homes. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was going to spend $60 million and take the lead in providing shelter to 100,000 victims of the disaster because of its expertise in dealing with emergency situations, but in March, Indonesia expelled the UNHCR, claiming that the victims of the tsunami are not "refugees" because they have not been forced to cross national borders. This is part of Indonesia’s punishment of Acheh for demanding self-determination. The Indonesian government had announced that all foreign aid workers should leave after three months, because so much would be accomplished that it could handle any remaining needs. Instead of accomplishing anything with the billions pledged from abroad, it has done nothing except issue blueprints. It is not even properly coordinating the emergency work; dead bodies are still being picked up without any system or attempt at identification, and the survivors are still suffering deprivations. Some foreign aid workers have been allowed to remain past the three-month deadline, but only for short periods. Indonesia so dislikes having foreigners in Acheh because it wants to return to its war against the Achenese people, without scrutiny and with impunity for its past human rights abuses. It is against building homes for the people of Acheh because it wants to put the homeless into military-controlled barracks, in the hopes of eradicating the movements that have been demanding independence or a referendum on Acheh’s status. Indonesia and the military arm of Acheh’s independence movement, the Free Acheh Movement (known as GAM) held peace talks three times since the tsunami, but have not even accomplished a cease-fire. The military continues to wage war in the midst of the catastrophe, and is sending new troops to Acheh. Eight hundred new troops were sent April 18, with plans announced to send three more battalions, up to 3,000 men, to fight GAM. Meanwhile, the main blueprint for Acheh, devised in Jakarta without consultation and rejected by Achenese students, NGOs, and ulamas (Islamic scholars), does not even properly identify the areas that were hardest hit by the tsunami. According to Acheh Recovery Forum, a group led by an Indonesian member of parliament, the blueprint provides for 60% of reconstruction money to go for "security," and 70% of that to go for building military installations. Another report, from Transparency International, also says that the critical point of the blueprint is the construction of barracks to force the refugees to live in--and provides for a cost of 200,000,000 rupiah ($18,000) for one set of barracks that in fact costs far less than that to build. The extra money is clearly meant for graft, which the Indonesian government and military are notorious for. When a local contractor who built one complex of barracks in Pidie was not paid by Indonesia, he refused to allow it to be occupied, leaving the refugees homeless. The first thing Indonesia did after the tsunami was to strengthen its two military commands in Acheh, one for the west where most Achenese used to live, and the other for the east, where the multinational corporations are located. The reason given for dividing up the province is that GAM is hiding in the villages. One region was put under the command of Gen. Geerhan Lentara, who was responsible for the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor, while the liason officer for all of Acheh is Gen. Adam Damiri, who was actually convicted by an Indonesian court (later overturned) of conducting war crimes in East Timor. Military commander Chairawan is now in charge of one of the two commands. He is the former commander of a group of Kopassus (Indonesian special forces) that was responsible for killing, kidnapping and torturing pro-reform activists in Jakarta in 1998, just before the fall of the Suharto dictatorship. The commander of Acheh during the martial law period (2003 until shortly after the tsunami), Endang Suwarya, has been promoted to vice-commander in chief of the whole Indonesian army. --Acheh Center For more information contact: |
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