Wednesday, January 12, 2005
January 12, 2005RELIEF
Indonesia Puts Curbs on Relief in Rebel AreasBy JANE PERLEZ
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan. 11 - The Indonesian military on Tuesday ordered restrictions on foreign aid workers, limiting their free operation to the two main cities hit by the tsunami in an effort to assert control over international relief operations here.
Outside those cities, Banda Aceh and neighboring Meulaboh, aid workers will need special permission to go into more remote areas where hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted by the disaster, Indonesia's military commander, Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, said in a news conference here.
"For the time being I would like the foreign presence only in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh," General Endriartono said. "Outside those areas they must be accompanied by the Indonesian military." The United Nations estimates that about 400,000 people in the province of Aceh were uprooted by the tsunami and says many of those victims are being sheltered in small towns and villages.
The new restrictions will enable the military to increase its presence in the countryside, where the rebels are strongest and where civilians fear Indonesian soldiers the most.
The general asserted that the new measures were needed to protect foreign aid workers from the separatist rebels that Indonesia has been fighting for 30 years. But rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, known by its acronym GAM, released a statement on Tuesday guaranteeing "the safety and free access to all parts of Aceh for international aid workers."
So far, there have been no incidents in Aceh involving the rebels and the trucks of the United Nations World Food Program, said Ian Clarke, the head of its office here. About 40 food-laden trucks a day have wound their way up the road from the city of Medan to Banda Aceh without trouble, he said.
Aid workers have expressed concern in recent days that the Indonesian military, worried about losing control or forfeiting what it sees as hard-won gains of recent years, would use the civil conflict as a pretext for clamping down on their activities.
There was considerable skepticism on Tuesday among relief groups about whether and how the new restrictions would be enforced.
Many foreign aid agencies, including the World Food Program, are generally reluctant to work with military escorts because they fear that accepting the protection of soldiers from one side could drag them into the conflict. Only in "very rare circumstances" does the World Food Program accept military escorts, said Bettina Luescher, the spokeswoman for the program. She pointed to Darfur in Sudan, where a civil conflict rages but where the program's trucks are never accompanied by military personnel.
Médecins du Monde, a French agency that specializes in the delivery of medical supplies, also has a policy of refusing military escorts, and will continue to apply it in Aceh, said Pierre Foldes, the director of the program here. "Anytime the Indonesian military protects you, they want to be involved in your program," Mr. Foldes said.
Before the tsunami, Aceh was virtually sealed off to foreigners. Martial law was declared in May 2003 and relaxed to a state of "civil emergency" the following year, as the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 troops severely weakened the rebels. Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, and other organizations have consistently accused the Indonesian military of severe abuses of civilians.
The United States terminated military aid to Indonesia a decade ago, citing credible accounts of human rights abuses against civilians in East Timor. This week, restrictions were relaxed on spare parts for Indonesia's military transport aircraft that can be used to deliver aid.
With the spread of foreigners throughout Aceh in the last two weeks, aid workers say, the strict control imposed by the military has necessarily been eased and relief operations have gone ahead without any interference.
The general made his comments during a morning news conference and elaborated on them later in a brief interview. He came to the provincial capital to address foreign military personnel who are involved in flying aircraft and helicopters and bringing ships with aid to the port.
"A foreign medical team has to be working with a team from the Indonesian Department of Health," the general said, explaining the policy, "and together they will be accompanied by the Indonesian military on everything outside Banda Aceh and Meulaboh."
In a prepared text, the general said foreign military equipment and assistance would "be under operational control" of the Indonesian military. Indonesian officers would be appointed as liaison officers on each foreign military aircraft and ship, he said.
As well as announcing the restrictions on movements outside the two main cities, the military said Tuesday that it was requiring aid agencies to tell the military where they are planning to deliver assistance. During the civil conflict, food has been a target of both the military and the rebels, and precise information about where food is being delivered for civilians could be of help to the military in its battle against the separatist insurgents.
The military also said Tuesday that it had asked the government to draw up a list of all foreign aid workers in the province.
Indonesia Puts Curbs on Relief in Rebel AreasBy JANE PERLEZ
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan. 11 - The Indonesian military on Tuesday ordered restrictions on foreign aid workers, limiting their free operation to the two main cities hit by the tsunami in an effort to assert control over international relief operations here.
Outside those cities, Banda Aceh and neighboring Meulaboh, aid workers will need special permission to go into more remote areas where hundreds of thousands of people were uprooted by the disaster, Indonesia's military commander, Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, said in a news conference here.
"For the time being I would like the foreign presence only in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh," General Endriartono said. "Outside those areas they must be accompanied by the Indonesian military." The United Nations estimates that about 400,000 people in the province of Aceh were uprooted by the tsunami and says many of those victims are being sheltered in small towns and villages.
The new restrictions will enable the military to increase its presence in the countryside, where the rebels are strongest and where civilians fear Indonesian soldiers the most.
The general asserted that the new measures were needed to protect foreign aid workers from the separatist rebels that Indonesia has been fighting for 30 years. But rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, known by its acronym GAM, released a statement on Tuesday guaranteeing "the safety and free access to all parts of Aceh for international aid workers."
So far, there have been no incidents in Aceh involving the rebels and the trucks of the United Nations World Food Program, said Ian Clarke, the head of its office here. About 40 food-laden trucks a day have wound their way up the road from the city of Medan to Banda Aceh without trouble, he said.
Aid workers have expressed concern in recent days that the Indonesian military, worried about losing control or forfeiting what it sees as hard-won gains of recent years, would use the civil conflict as a pretext for clamping down on their activities.
There was considerable skepticism on Tuesday among relief groups about whether and how the new restrictions would be enforced.
Many foreign aid agencies, including the World Food Program, are generally reluctant to work with military escorts because they fear that accepting the protection of soldiers from one side could drag them into the conflict. Only in "very rare circumstances" does the World Food Program accept military escorts, said Bettina Luescher, the spokeswoman for the program. She pointed to Darfur in Sudan, where a civil conflict rages but where the program's trucks are never accompanied by military personnel.
Médecins du Monde, a French agency that specializes in the delivery of medical supplies, also has a policy of refusing military escorts, and will continue to apply it in Aceh, said Pierre Foldes, the director of the program here. "Anytime the Indonesian military protects you, they want to be involved in your program," Mr. Foldes said.
Before the tsunami, Aceh was virtually sealed off to foreigners. Martial law was declared in May 2003 and relaxed to a state of "civil emergency" the following year, as the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 troops severely weakened the rebels. Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, and other organizations have consistently accused the Indonesian military of severe abuses of civilians.
The United States terminated military aid to Indonesia a decade ago, citing credible accounts of human rights abuses against civilians in East Timor. This week, restrictions were relaxed on spare parts for Indonesia's military transport aircraft that can be used to deliver aid.
With the spread of foreigners throughout Aceh in the last two weeks, aid workers say, the strict control imposed by the military has necessarily been eased and relief operations have gone ahead without any interference.
The general made his comments during a morning news conference and elaborated on them later in a brief interview. He came to the provincial capital to address foreign military personnel who are involved in flying aircraft and helicopters and bringing ships with aid to the port.
"A foreign medical team has to be working with a team from the Indonesian Department of Health," the general said, explaining the policy, "and together they will be accompanied by the Indonesian military on everything outside Banda Aceh and Meulaboh."
In a prepared text, the general said foreign military equipment and assistance would "be under operational control" of the Indonesian military. Indonesian officers would be appointed as liaison officers on each foreign military aircraft and ship, he said.
As well as announcing the restrictions on movements outside the two main cities, the military said Tuesday that it was requiring aid agencies to tell the military where they are planning to deliver assistance. During the civil conflict, food has been a target of both the military and the rebels, and precise information about where food is being delivered for civilians could be of help to the military in its battle against the separatist insurgents.
The military also said Tuesday that it had asked the government to draw up a list of all foreign aid workers in the province.
