Security scare over foreign aid workers

Indonesia’s military asked aid groups in tsunami-stricken areas to draw up a list of relief workers and report on their movements as fears rose for the security of foreigners helping survivors in a region wracked by rebellion long before the waves hit.

Meanwhile, international aid kept flowing with Canada increasing its contribution to €271.5m from the €51.5m announced earlier. With billions pledged worldwide, the United Nations made the unusual move of turning to an outside accounting firm to help track the funds and investigate any credible allegations of fraud, waste or abuse.

The December 26 disaster killed more than 150,000 people across south and south-east Asia and as far away as eastern Africa. Most of the deaths were in Indonesia, where the government said it would step up efforts to bury tens of thousands of bodies still scattered across the disaster zone.

Indonesian authorities have long been wary of foreigners’ presence in Aceh province, which bore the brunt of the disaster and where separatists have been fighting government troops for more than 20 years.

The Indonesian military has portrayed the rebels as ruthless killers willing to attack aid convoys and use refugee camps as hideouts, though it has yet to offer evidence to back its claims.

Joel Boutroue, head of the UN relief effort in Aceh, said he did not believe Indonesia was trying to impede aid efforts with its request for a list of foreign workers.

“It’s normal they want to know where people are,” he said. “I think it’s a legitimate concern for the security of relief workers, considering the environment in which we’re working.”

Tens of thousands of people are homeless and threatened by the disease, and health officials have warned that the death toll from the tsunami disaster could double if aid does not reach the neediest fast enough.

Fears of epidemic increased after medical teams detected two unconnected cases of measles in Indonesia. Unicef said it was vaccinating 600,000 survivors on the devastated island of Sumatra.

As schools reopened across the tsunami-ravaged region, teachers put aside regular lessons and focused on healing.

“Today we’re just teaching them how to pray in these difficult times,” said Sutrisini, a school principal in a rural district in Indonesia who like most in her country uses only one name. She said normal lessons would not resume for weeks.

In Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people died, sombre youngsters at some schools stood silently among empty desks to remember fellow students and teachers killed by the waves. Other schools were jammed from an influx of refugee children whose villages were destroyed.

In the Sri Lankan port of Galle, the state-run Vidyaloka College was a shambles: dank, empty classrooms, salvaged desks and chairs with rusty legs in the yard, the outer wall a pile of rubble. A third of its 96 classrooms were damaged, and many records were lost.

MG Gunapala, the principal, tried his best to get things in order. “I’m determined to build up this place,” he said. “If I don’t have a positive attitude, I can’t motivate the staff and the students.”