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 Government Denies Foreign
Access to Aceh
December 29, 2004
01:19 AM,
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Laksamana.Net - The Indonesian
government is apparently determined to thwart foreign parties
seeking to enter regions devastated by tidal waves on Sunday �
ostensibly due to the separatist movement in Aceh province.
Secretary to the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare
Sutedjo Juwono said that Jakarta-based foreign journalists will be
permitted to go directly to Aceh after securing a permit from local
military authorities, reported The Jakarta Post in its online
version on Tuesday (28/12/04) at 19.30 local time.
Several
Jakarta-based foreign journalists were permitted to enter Aceh on
Monday but Sutedjo said that other journalists and aid workers not
based in Indonesia will be �required to submit application
letters... which may take two weeks (to process).�
Deputy to
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Joko
Sumaryono has been appointed liaison officer for foreign
journalists.
The Post reported that journalists must
register with the government before entering Aceh so that their
movements can be monitored.
Aceh has been off limits to
international humanitarian and media organizations since 2003 after
the collapse of internationally-brokered peace talks with separatist
rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has fought for
independence since 1976, and the subsequent instatement of a
military emergency in May 2003.
Then president Megawati
Sukarnoputri and her backers in the country�s armed forces (TNI) and
police sanctioned the deployment of up to 51,000 troops to
annihilate an estimated 5,300 armed guerrillas.
The
province�s status was �downgraded� to a civil emergency in May 2004
but nongovernment organizations maintain that widespread human
rights abuses have been perpetrated against civilians and prisoners.
TNI commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto inferred on Monday
that the rebels might exploit the current situation to strike
against government forces. The General had earlier announced that
377 TNI personnel and 51 members of their families were among the
dead. Observers believe the number is much higher.
A GAM
spokesman said Monday night that its central command in Sweden had
issued orders to all armed units in Aceh to cease hostilities and
focus on relief efforts. With communications down across the
province, the message is unlikely to get through but no incidents of
GAM aggression have been reported since the disaster struck.
Meanwhile, the true extent of the devastation is beginning
to come to light.
Vice President Yusuf Kalla said earlier on
Tuesday after visiting Aceh that the death toll may reach 25,000 �
compared to an earlier official estimate of around 5,000. As many as
10,000 people may have perished in areas along the south coast and
9,000 in the provincial capital.
The death toll in countries
bordering the Indian Ocean from tsunami triggered by the undersea
earthquake just 150 kilometers from Aceh�s south-west coast now
stands at over 50,000.
In Aceh, many thousands of bodies
continue to line the streets of the provincial capital Banda Aceh
and one Red Cross official told the ABC that they had received a
report that around 6,000 corpses in another region close by have not
been collected from where they were dumped by the wave.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono � who served as
Megawati�s chief political and security minister prior to national
elections this year � also visited Aceh on Tuesday and prayed before
rows of unidentified corpses at the Banda Aceh Grand Mosque.
Yudhoyono came in for criticism last month after he decided
to extend the civil emergency despite widespread calls for an end to
the emergency and reports that the security situation was under
control.
Perpetual Tragedy
Aceh had all but
disappeared from the headlines despite its ongoing and bloody
conflict until Sunday�s disaster put it back on the national and
international agenda.
According to TNI data, nearly 2,000
GAM members and 662 civilians were killed between May 2003 and
September 2004 but concerned parties maintain that the figures could
be higher and that the distinction between separatist rebel and
civilian is often blurred in Aceh where widespread distrust � even
hatred � of the central government is pervasive.
The TNI
also announced in September that a total of 6,631 alleged GAM
members were killed, surrendered or arrested during the period �
well above its initial estimate of the rebel�s strength.
Bitterness towards the central government among Acehnese is
born not merely from the violence of the ongoing conflict but also
from the rampant corruption that has impoverished the people.
During the year-long military emergency, the central
government allocated an additional Rp4.06 trillion ($447.7 million)
to military operations in Aceh � roughly three times larger than the
annual provincial budget.
Of the total diverted to the war
effort, some Rp2.7 trillion ($209 million) was apparently embezzled
and is currently the subject of investigations at the national
Corruption Eradication Commission.
Aceh is the poorest
region in the country. Aceh Governor and corruption suspect Abdullah
Puteh admitted in his accountability speech to the provincial
parliament this year that over 40% of the population lived below the
poverty line.
�Now is the time for the government to release
humanitarian funds for Aceh and not just for military operations,
which have totalled Rp7 trillion since 2003,� Aceh Working Group
coordinator Rusdi Marpaung was cited saying in the Media
Indonesia daily on Tuesday.
Several parliamentarians
have also called on the government to revoke the civil emergency
status in Aceh to allow aid agencies to assist in the massive relief
effort.
In response to such calls, State Secretary Yusril
Ihza Mahendra told journalists Monday evening that the civil
emergency status would remain in place in Aceh and correct
procedures would be followed.
He said the government was
determined to handle the disaster relief operation independently and
compile complete data on the conditions in Aceh before allowing
�foreign countries� to contribute, reported Media Indonesia.
He said that this attitude should not be misconstrued as a
ban against entering the province but was a technical consideration.
The governments of Japan, Australia, the United States of
America, and a host of European and Asian countries have committed
to aiding the relief effort in Indonesia and across the region.
If disease spreads from the thousands of unburied bodies and
the aid fails to make it through in time, international players may
be forced to confront the Indonesian government on its handling of
the biggest natural disaster to hit the country in living memory.
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******Bergabung dan ramaikan diskusi Reboan di jaker (di dunia nyata) atau diskusi di [email protected] (di dunia maya)! Untuk bergabung di diskusi maya silakan kawan kawan kirim email kosong ke :
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (langganan)
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( underconstructions)
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