~Tsunami - 125 days after

~Tsunami - 125 days after

Message from Minister for Development Cooperation of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands, Agnes van Ardenne-van der Hoeven

In Indonesia, on the streets of Banda Aceh, the impact of the
tsunami is still being felt. Children are still crying because
their parents died.

Fathers and mothers are missing their lost children every day.
Men cannot work, children cannot go to school, the roads are
ruined and many still have no running water or electricity. At
the same time, much has been accomplished in the past 125 days.

In cooperation with the Indonesian authorities, international
aid organizations have managed to provide enough food and
drinking water for those in the disaster areas. People have a
roof over their heads, whether temporary or permanent. The
citizens of Indonesia, and of the other countries struck by the
tsunami, are trying to carry on with their lives. Never before
have donors worldwide been so generous.

The Netherlands too has done its part, without hesitation. My
country's historical ties with Indonesia inspire a sense of
commitment. Commitment made manifest in recent months, in the
form of aid to Indonesia. The Dutch public responded en masse to
the national appeal for funds, which raised more than 200 million
euros.

On behalf of the Dutch government, I pledged 40
million euros in emergency aid, most of which has already been
spent. Dutch aid may not always have been clearly recognizable as
such, but it was certainly effective. We made a conscious
decision to channel our assistance through UN bodies and the aid
organizations on the scene, which have unmatched insight into
what is needed and where.

In January, this approach was wholeheartedly endorsed by the
international community of donors at a conference in Jakarta,
because it reduces bureaucracy, duplication of effort, and waste.
And the latest reports show that my government has achieved
better than satisfactory results with the 27 million euros we
have so far spent on emergency aid.

Now, after almost four months, international assistance will
shift its emphasis from emergency aid to reconstruction. It will
take time to rebuild what the great wave smashed and swept away
on 26 December. Indonesia, as well as Sri Lanka, can count on the
international community to help with the reconstruction process.
Over the next five years, the Netherlands will make 200 million
euros available for the reconstruction of Indonesia and Sri
Lanka. Those two countries will have the freedom to develop their
own plans for using those funds and to take charge of
implementation. Who could possibly know better than the
Indonesians themselves what must be done to rebuild their
country?

To support proper coordination of reconstruction activities,
to avoid duplication of effort and to ensure that its assistance
will be as effective as possible, the Netherlands will deposit
its contributions in multi-donor trust funds. The trust fund for
Indonesia was created earlier this week, and the Netherlands will
contribute 60 million euros to it for 2005.

Amid all the human suffering caused by the tsunami, the
Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement have harnessed
the momentum it generated to reopen negotiations on resolving the
long-drawn-out Aceh conflict. The progress they are making in
those negotiations is encouraging. I hope they will reach an
accord this year. A peace agreement for Aceh is certain to
promote successful reconstruction. And that is in the interest
not just of the tsunami's victims, but of all the people of
Indonesia.