Aid workers at risk in Indonesia, says official

Dan Eaton, Banda Aceh

Indonesia's head of relief operations said agencies would need permission to work outside the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the ravaged west coast town of Meulaboh.

Asked if Aceh was unsafe for aid workers, Budi Atmaji said: "Yes, in some places." However, separatist rebels said they would never attack aid workers who in turn said they were not overly worried.

Huge waves triggered on December 26 by an earthquake 150km out to sea from Meulaboh killed at least 157,000 people around the Indian Ocean 105,500 in Indonesia, 30,000 in Sri Lanka and 15,000 in India. Many of the more than 5,000 killed in Thailand were tourists from Europe Interpol and 20 national police forces launched the biggest-ever disaster victim identification system to

unravel the mesh of forensic data from the bodies, hundreds of which were to be exhumed for checks after hasty burials right after the tsunami.

Adding to the anguish of relatives, experts at the makeshift police headquarters on the tsunami-hit

island of Phuket said putting names to all the corpses cross-referencing dental records, fingerprints and DNA from bodies and from the missing could take months.

"It wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that this will go longer than six months," said Jeff Emery, an Australian police expert in charge of about 60 detectives, doctors and pathologists from a score of

nations. At a meeting in Geneva, the UN urged donors to set a record by meeting in full its 762 million appeal for immediate aid to tsunami victims. Past disaster

appeals failed to bring in all the money sought.

"It is very important we get money early on. Hunger doesn't wait, disease doesn't wait. We need to be quicker," said UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland.

International donations have been unprecedented, with governments, agencies and individuals pledging over E 5.3 billion.

Aceh was worst hit and is the focus of global aid efforts, bringing unprecedented outside involvement in an area where, for three decades, the army and separatist rebels have clashed.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia and GAM (Free Aceh Movement) separatists had reached "a gentlemen's agreement" not to launch an offensive and to ensure help reached the needy.

A militant Islamic group warned foreign aid agencies in Aceh not to stray from their humanitarian mission.

"We can work together. But if they came here with some hidden agenda colonialism, imperialism or missionary, I think this is very, very dangerous," said Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, a leader of the Islamic Defenders Front.