Workers face new threat to aid effort
Aid workers battling to ease the plight of survivors of the devastating quake and tsunami across south-east Asia were today warned they faced a dangerous new threat to efforts.
Indonesia warned aid workers there that separatist rebels are sheltering in camps for tsunami survivors, and in Sri Lanka a burst of violence signalled a potential resurgence of long-simmering rebellions that could hamper help for victims of the two-week-old disaster.
Adding to the survivors’ misery, tropical downpours complicated relief efforts already hamstrung by impassable roads and destroyed bridges. The deluge compounded the plight of tens of thousands of survivors living in little more than tents.
Decades-old conflicts in Indonesia and Sri Lanka have been dormant in the days since the magnitude-nine earthquake and tsunami struck, killing more than 150,000 people in Asia and Africa.
They have reignited as aid workers poured into the region with emergency assistance, some travelling to areas where outsiders are almost never allowed.
The workers have exercised caution amid the increasing security worries – but don’t want anything to slow the flow of help to the desperate.
“We don’t believe that aid workers are targets,” said Joel Boutroue, head of the UN relief effort in Indonesia’s Aceh province.
Ethnic tensions overshadowed UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s tour of devastated areas in Sri Lanka. Hundreds protested in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-dominated north after he acceded to a government request not to visit areas under rebel control.
“I’m hoping to come back and be able to visit all areas of the country, not only those repaired, but also to celebrate peace,” Annan said before heading to the Maldives. “The UN is not here to take sides.”
A rare burst of violence between Christians and Hindus in eastern Sri Lanka, where a massive aid effort is under way, revived security fears for relief workers there. At least three people were killed and 37 injured.
The Indonesian government warning offered no details about the infiltrations, but came hours after police in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, blamed separatists for a night-time burst of gunfire close to the main UN compound in town.
Local military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki told the state-run Antara news agency that volunteers must understand that Aceh “is not like other regions in Indonesia”.
“This is still a conflict-torn region,” he said.
Indonesian authorities blamed separatist rebels for the shooting incident, near the house of a provincial police official. But the government regularly blames the rebels for violence – even if there is little evidence they were involved.
The rebels have waged a separatist war in Aceh for nearly three decades in a conflict that has killed thousands. An unofficial truce settled in after the St Stephen's Day disaster, but recent skirmishes have prompted Indonesia’s military to step up patrols for the guerrillas.
Security concerns have also been heightened by the appearance of Laskar Mujahidin, an extremist group with alleged links to al-Qaida. The group has set up an aid camp, but says it only wants to help and won’t target foreigners.
Still, the aid effort continued unabated, with the World Food Programme sending 170 staffers. Other agencies have similar numbers.
The US military, with hundreds of personnel on ships near Sumatra and in Sri Lanka, said aid workers must remain vigilant in restive areas.
“Security is a constant planning factor in all that we do,” said US Army aid coordinator Major Nelson Chang.
Refugee camps are being built on Sumatra to house and feed half a million homeless people.
Bodies are still being pulled from the rubble and buried in mass graves.
Rain pounded relief workers today, turning Banda Aceh airport – the hub for aid supplies – into a muddy mess and soaking piles of cardboard boxes of supplies sitting on the tarmac. Scores of tents where aid workers and soldiers camped became a quagmire.
Despite the troubles, Mike Huggins, a WFP spokesman said help was getting to people in need.
“We are moving more food now than ever before and we’re getting it further afield,” he said. Aid officials said they may have to feed as many as two million survivors a day for six months.
Australia and Germany, among other countries, have led the way in pledging nearly €3.1bn in aid – the biggest relief package ever.
US President George W Bush called the States' $350m (€268.2m) only an ”initial commitment” and essentially a line of credit that can be spent as aid officials identify needs.
The United Nations and local governments are coordinating the massive relief effort. Militaries from around the world have pitched in with transport and logistics.
US Navy personnel and Marines flew into shattered regions of Aceh while Australian and New Zealand troops worked in a 55-bed field hospital they set up on Saturday in Banda Aceh, the Australian Defence Force said.
An Australian troop ship, HMAS Kanimbla, packed with medical supplies and heavy construction equipment, is due to arrive midweek, a military spokesman said.
