Aid agencies downplay TNI restrictions

Aid agencies downplay TNI restrictions

The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Wanting to visit Sigli to report on the activities of Doctors
without Borders here, Bruno Bonamigo, producer of Radio Canada
Information, reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs desk at
the governor's house in Banda Aceh.

An official at the desk told Bonamigo that he could go to
Meulaboh on the west coast, but not to Sigli, a town on the east
coast.

The producer said Doctors without Borders had relief
operations in both towns, and that the agency had recommended
that he go to Sigli as it was more accessible from Banda Aceh.

"Now, I have been told (by Indonesian officials) that I may
not go to Sigli, so, I have no alternative but to find a way to
Meulaboh," Bonamigo told The Jakarta Post here.

Bonamigo was one of the first victims of the government's new
policy of restricting the movements of over 2,000 civilian
foreign aid workers in Aceh for security reasons.

The move was announced on Tuesday by Indonesian Military (TNI)
chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who said security forces could
not guarantee the safety of foreign aid workers from separatist
rebels in the province.

On Wednesday, the disaster mitigation task force in Aceh
issued a statement that says all foreigners, including
individuals, country representatives, United Nations agencies,
NGOs and journalists, are not allowed to operate outside Banda
Aceh and its surrounding areas without clearance from the
Indonesian authorities.

The policy applies to foreigners who have just arrived as well
as those already in Aceh.

"It is important to note that the government would be placed
in a very difficult position if any foreigner who came to Aceh to
assist in the aid effort was harmed through the acts of an
irresponsible party," said the statement, apparently referring to
the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"Such an event would severely hamper the humanitarian effort,
which remains the government's first priority, and would distract
officials from their focus on providing relief," it added.

Budi Prastowo of the foreign affairs desk said that all
foreigners must fill in a registration form at the desk,
explaining where they want to go and why.

"The forms will be submitted to Aceh Police Headquarters
which, together with the military, will assess within 24 hours
whether the intended destinations of either aid workers or
reporters is safe for them, or whether they need police guard or
soldiers to escort them," he added.

Asked by the Associated Press if it was possible that groups
could be expelled from Aceh if they disregarded the order, chief
welfare minister Alwi Shihab said: "I think that is one
possibility". He did not elaborate.

The restrictions would likely affect humanitarian operations
in areas outside Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Meulaboh,
particularly in coastal towns between Meulaboh and Banda Aceh,
which were hardest hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

Indonesian authorities have not specified how they would reach
and assist refugees in those areas without the help of foreign
agencies.

As of Wednesday, helicopters belonging to many nations
continued to airlift aid from the airport in Banda Aceh to a
number of places outside the city, including Meulaboh. But it was
not clear whether the restrictions had affected aid distribution
in certain areas.

A senior UN official downplayed the new restrictions. "The
cooperation with the government of Indonesia remains, I think,
excellent," said Kevin Kennedy from the UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"In no way has it impacted or diminished our ability to move
about or to access populations," Kennedy was quoted by Agence
France Presse as saying at the UN headquarters in New York.

Raul de la Rosa, an aid worker from the Christian Children's
Fund, which has helped tsunami survivors in Bireuen, North Aceh,
said that he hoped the new policy would not affect its plan to
assist displaced people there and in Sigli.

"As long as it does not hinder us from helping them, it should
be all right," he said.

In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister John Howard supported
the Indonesian government's demand that foreign aid workers and
journalists report their movements outside Banda Aceh, saying it
was "a good idea".

"It is very, very important that in the process of giving full
effect to this magnificent international response, that we
recognize the difficulties in Aceh, but that we don't overreact
to them and we don't dramatize them," he was quoted by AP as
saying.
Editorial -- Page 6