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Military control of Aceh emergency impedes aid distribution

TAPOL Press release - January 4, 2005

Military control of the massive tsunami relief operation in Aceh, and its monopoly of aid distribution, is hampering the delivery of vital supplies to those most in need according to information received by TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

TAPOL is calling for the status of civil emergency, which replaced martial law in May 2004 but retained a special role for the military, to be lifted immediately. There are fears that the military will take advantage of the crisis to consolidate its control of the territory and step up its offensive against the separatist Free Aceh Movement, GAM. Senior military sources have already stated that the war against GAM will continue despite the humanitarian catastrophe. The civil emergency should be replaced by a humanitarian emergency status providing for civilian control of local government and relief operations, a limited humanitarian role for the military, and unlimited access to Aceh for international agencies, aid workers and journalists, says TAPOL.

The Indonesian government should use this tragic opportunity to end military operations against GAM and reinstate the peace process through dialogue and negotiation, it urges.

"The relief and reconstruction of Aceh will be a long and painful process which cannot be achieved without a commitment to peace by both sides of the conflict" says Aguswandi an Acehnese human rights defender working with TAPOL.

A number of problems have been highlighted by a source close to TAPOL who returned from Aceh on 3 January. A large amount of food and non-food aid has arrived in the provincial capital Banda Aceh by air, but distribution of this aid to those most in need has been very slow. According to the source:

Most of the aid from Jakarta has been sent to Banda Aceh through the intermediary of government agencies and has arrived at the military airport, not the civilian airport. This means that access to and distribution of this aid is under the control of the military. Offers to help with distribution have been made by civilians and activists who survived the tsunami, but have been rejected. The result is that people are having to queue up at military posts in order to receive food. This is difficult in itself, but they also have to present identity cards which they do not possess or have lost.

- Organisations sending food aid to Aceh are not well informed about the political situation and the government and military procedures now in force.

- Aid that has reached Banda Aceh by air is piling up at the military airport as there is insufficient transport to distribute it. It is difficult to confirm the arrival of the aid or to track its subsequent distribution.

- Consequently sending aid by air is not necessarily the most effective way of ensuring supplies reach those most in need.

- The fastest way of ensuring effective delivery is by truck, which would take three days from Jakarta rather than by air to a military base with no guarantee that it will reach the intended recipients.

- In Meulaboh, the worst-hit city, the military have full control over food aid and distribution due to the difficulty of access. Attempts to make direct contact with people in Meulaboh to learn of their current situation has not yet been possible.

- In Banda Aceh, local NGOs have plenty of volunteers ready to help but they have nothing to distribute. At the same time government officials say there is a shortage of volunteers to help with distribution.

Local activists believe the best way to deal with the problem is to send aid directly to Aceh for distribution by local civilian groups or international agencies.

Concerned organisations and individuals are asked to lobby their governments to take account of these concerns in order to ensure that vital supplies are delivered to starving children and displaced people in Aceh without delay and that the military is not allowed to control the relief operation for its own political purposes.