After tsunami, 'finally time to lokk ahead'

After tsunami, 'finally time to lokk ahead'

Tini Tran, Associated Press / Banda Aceh

Gathering in the shadow of a mosque battered by the December tsunami, local leaders and international donors on Saturday took stock of a disaster that wiped out vast stretches of Aceh and said rebuilding efforts were picking up steam after months of delays.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, director of the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh and Nias, thanked international leaders for their support and said he was hopeful that the Acehnese would take this opportunity "to make Aceh stronger than before."

"Now it's time to look forward," he said, noting that US$2.8 billion in funds have been disbursed by foreign donors and $1.9 billion in projects approved by his agency. "Finally, things are happening on the ground."

Officials, including representatives from the World Bank, the United States, Australia, and Japan, highlighted the few signs of progress in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam -- the dozens of homes being built in many destroyed villages or a pier being rebuilt in the west coast town of Meulaboh.

"We're at a stage now (that) within the next month or so we'll really begin to see recovery and reconstruction changes physically in Aceh," said Bo Asplund, the top UN official in Indonesia.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which pulled out of the province in March over a dispute with the government, used the occasion to say it was returning.

But the rosy picture painted by officials has been lost on the few residents who have returned to this coastal area known as Ulee Lheu. Once home to a string of thriving middle-class neighborhoods, it's now little more than piles of dirt, bricks and trash six months after the disaster.

The Baiturrahim mosque where the officials gathered is about the only standing structure along this coast on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Nothing has been rebuilt for kilometers, save a prayer hall and a smattering of tents.

The mammoth quake and tsunami six months ago killed more than 178,000 people in 11 countries and about 50,000 more are missing.

The focus has shifted from emergency relief to longer-term recovery; donors and aid agencies are seeking to rebuild basic infrastructure and renew broken lives.

Indonesia was the hardest hit of all the countries, with 131,000 dead and a half-million left homeless. And while reconstruction has begun, 250,000 Acehnese survivors remain in tents awaiting promised housing and other services.

Aceh's recovery has been plagued by political squabbling, donor concerns over corruption, and government delays in releasing guidelines for rebuilding, especially along the coast.