[b]Numerous foreign aid agencies are overlooking the fact that

Numerous foreign aid agencies are overlooking the fact that
Aceh is a conflict zone.

;JP;CD;
ANPAk..r..

Aceh's disasters: Man-made, natural, and man-made again
JP/7/AGUS

Aceh's disasters: Man-made, natural, and man-made again

Aguswandi
London

Acehnese survivors of the tsunami may not be as lucky as you
think. It is almost impossible to imagine what the lives of
tsunami survivors is like. Not only have they lost many members
of their families and all their worldly goods, but they will have
to try and rebuild a life in an ongoing conflict area that is
little more than a man-made disaster. It is not only time to try
and rebuild Aceh's infrastructure, but also time to solve the
ongoing conflict in the province.

Imagine Fatimah's life. She is the wife of a local journalist.
When she woke up on the morning of Dec. 26 she had a family, two
children and a loving husband, a home, and dreams for all their
futures. By mid-afternoon she was alone, searching for her two
children and her husband. On Dec. 27, she woke up in a temporary
camp for the displaced, along with thousands of others. Her only
remaining hope was to find the bodies of her family. Fatimah is
40 years old. A simple Acehnese woman with simple dreams has lost
everything and more.

Fatimah has survived, sort of. In a refugee camp in Banda
Aceh, she blames herself for being alive, "Why have I survived?
Why was I spared?" But this is her fate. She has to build a new
life. Over 250,000 people did not have this opportunity. They are
gone, killed by the biggest natural disaster in the history of
Indonesia, let alone Aceh. The tsunami has left 400,000 displaced
people. It has destroyed half the Acehnese capital, swathes of
Great Aceh and Calang and Meulaboh. For the surviving Acehnese,
it is a different world.

But even before the tsunami hit Aceh was a disaster zone, this
one caused by man. When the tsunami hit in December the province
was under a second period of civil emergency. Civil emergency,an
extension of the preceding martial law, imposed restrictions on
the locals and destroyed the life of the population.

The conflict has claimed over 3,000 lives in the last two
years. More people were killed in Aceh in the two years before
the tsunami than over the same period in the Palestine and Israel
conflict. It has destroyed huge chunks of the infrastructure.
Local government says that at least 40 percent of the local
population are living in poverty as a result of the conflict. If
you travel on the road from Medan to Banda Aceh, the number of
police and military security posts outnumber medical centers and
schools.

Pre-tsunami Aceh continued to resemble Indonesia under
Soeharto. The military and police continue to control not only
security but politics too. Aceh is the only place where the
military's dual function integrating security and political
responsibilities continue both in theory as well as practice.
Several districts and sub districts are under military control.

Indeed the current "civilian" authority is in the hands of the
police. Numerous restrictions are imposed on the local
population. The tsunami is just the icing on the cake. In a
refugee settlement in Banda Aceh somebody joked that from Sukarno
to Soeharto, and from Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Tsunami, all
are the same: Creating chaos for the Acehnese.

But there is still optimism. Locals are talking about how the
horror of the tsunami can provide an opportunity to build a
totally new Aceh. This new Aceh should be -- and can be --
different to the pre- or post-tsunami Aceh. According to
Rufriadi, head of the Legal Aid Foundation in Aceh, who has
himself lost everything, building this new Aceh is not simply
about infrastructure or development, but also building peace.

However, this new Aceh is definitely not the one outlined in
some blue prints included BAPENAS' blue print. There are no
provisions for dealing with the conflict. The blueprint simply
aims to return Aceh to "normal", the conflict-shattered Aceh that
still existed on Dec. 25. Aceh's pre-tsunami "normality" was
abnormal. And yet few of the reconstruction plans on the table
even mention peace-building.

Numerous foreign aid agencies are overlooking the fact that
Aceh is a conflict zone. It is not just the ground zero of a
monumental natural disaster, but also a thirty year conflict.

The inadequacy of the planning and the blueprint are not
surprising given that -- once again- the Acehnese people have not
been involved in the discussions about their future. Not how,
who, where or when. Once again their future is being handed down
to them from above, namely Jakarta. Despite many promises by
Jakarta that the locals will be consulted, it remains clear that
there is no mechanism being developed for the inclusion of the
Acehnese in the process of reconstruction.

In fact a recent attempt by several Indonesian and Acehnese
civil society groups in Central Aceh to hold a discussion forum
on the reconstruction process and how to involve people was
banned by the civil emergency authorities. If the Acehnese are
not involved in either the direction or detail of their
homeland's reconstruction, nor in the discussions for terms of
peace in their homeland, they will be doubly disenfranchised .

Aceh's reconstruction is a vast task. The province should be
opened to anybody offering assistance. The international
community must be given latitude in their work to support the
Acehnese people and the reconstruction of their home. Yet this
involvement is currently under threat. The government issued a
deadline of March 26 for foreign workers in Aceh to leave the
devastated province. Initially it was given to foreign troops
only, but recent statements from the Police Task Force spokesman
in Aceh indicate that this is being expanded to include certain
foreign humanitarian groups as well.

However the problems are not simply generated by the
government. There is also a very clear lack of understanding or
knowledge about Aceh within most agencies now working in the
province. Staff brought in from all over the world, while experts
in their thematic field, know nothing of the people or the
problems they have confronted their whole lives. While most have
some understanding that the province has experienced a long-term
conflict there seems to be little understanding of -- let alone
planning for -- an active military presence, weak civilian
structures, and a terrorized population.

The writer is an Acehnese human rights campaigner working as a
researcher for TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign in
London.