Acehnese struggle for normalcy three months after tsunami<\/p>\n
Achmad Sukarsono, Reuters\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Near the seafood market where he worked until killer waves
\nsmashed it to bits three months ago, Alimuddin is selling fish
\nagain in the provincial capital of Aceh.<\/p>\n
A massive Indian Ocean earthquake on Dec. 26 sent a tsunami
\ncrashing into coasts around the region. Aceh was hardest hit.
\nAlmost a quarter of a million Acehnese were killed or are
\nmissing, and more than 500,000 survivors lost their homes.<\/p>\n
Alimuddin's wife died, his house was leveled and his workplace
\nwas wrecked when the waves hit Banda Aceh.<\/p>\n
But after mourning for months as the city was cleared of
\nrubble and bodies, he went back to work.<\/p>\n
"I feel things are getting back to normal. It is really the
\ntime for us to move on," said the mustachioed Alimuddin while
\nchopping a fish for an aged Banda Aceh resident who had returned
\nafter fleeing to a nearby province.<\/p>\n
Alimuddin and his customer are living proof the worst fears
\nabout the tsunami's after-effects haven't been realized.<\/p>\n
Just after the disaster experts worried of many more deaths
\nfrom hunger and disease, and thought it could be several months
\nbefore the economy showed sparks of life.<\/p>\n
Those concerns proved largely unfounded as governments,
\nprivate aid groups and militaries rushed in food and medicine and
\nset up shelters.<\/p>\n
And the Acehnese showed a toughness many have praised.<\/p>\n
Erskine Bowles, deputy United Nations special envoy for
\ntsunami recovery, told reporters on Friday he had witnessed their
\nresilience.<\/p>\n
"When you're on the ground and you see the devastation, it's
\nhard to even comprehend. But then the good part happens. Then you
\nmeet the Acehnese people and they are the strongest people I have
\never met in my life."<\/p>\n
Bowles was White House chief of staff when Bill Clinton was
\nU.S. president. Clinton is now an UN tsunami special envoy and he
\nand Bowles are encouraging donors to dig deep into their pockets
\nto help tsunami-affected nations.<\/p>\n
"Now, we've finished the sprint. We're now on to the
\nmarathon," said Bowles.<\/p>\n
Part of the challenge is to get more victims like Alimuddin
\nback on the job.<\/p>\n
"I want to work again. I need a barrow and shovel to go back
\nto my job but who will help me?" said Muhammad Saleh, a villager
\nfrom Aceh's flattened west coast region of Leupung who once mined
\nsand used in construction work.<\/p>\n
Aid agencies say providing jobs is a top priority.<\/p>\n
Mohamed Saleheen, head of the UN's World Food Program office
\nin Indonesia, told Reuters: "I hope and I'm sure that there will
\nbe avenues targeted on their livelihood under the blueprint,"
\nreferring to a long-awaited plan of action for recovery and
\nreconstruction Indonesia has promised.<\/p>\n
Vice President Jusuf Kalla is scheduled to discuss the plan
\nwith Acehnese leaders on Saturday, but Alwi Shihab,
\nCoordinating Minister for People's Welfare put in charge of Aceh
\nafter the disaster, has said it would be several days before it
\nwas final.<\/p>\n
Many ready to commit aid or undertake projects have been told
\nto wait until the plan is announced before going ahead.<\/p>\n
It may also shed light on the presence of international
\nagencies after weeks of confusion over their future.<\/p>\n
Their high visibility -- more than 150 non-government agencies
\nalone are in Aceh -- has ruffled nationalistic feathers and
\nraised security issues in the province, where the government has
\nbeen fighting pro-independence rebels for decades.<\/p>\n
Staff of the United Nations' refugee agency left Aceh on
\nThursday after Jakarta decided their presence was unnecessary. A
\nUNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) housing
\nproject was shifted to another U.N. agency.<\/p>\n
The UNHCR base in Banda Aceh was deserted on Friday. Written
\non a whiteboard was: "Remember what MacArthur said", an apparent
\nreference to U.S. General Douglas MacArthur's "I shall return"
\npledge when he left the Philippines during World War Two.<\/p>",
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