~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.