Indonesia orders foreign aid workers to register for travel

Foreign relief workers could be expelled if they don’t declare travel plans in Indonesia’s tsunami-devastated Aceh province, the government said today citing security concerns, as the United Nations appealed to donors to follow through with promises of aid.

So far, governments and international development banks have pledged an unprecedented $4bn (€3bn) to help victims of the December 26 earthquake and killer waves that left more than 150,000 people dead in nearly a dozen countries.

But Jan Egeland, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said only $717m (€547.8m) had been converted into binding commitments.

Hardest hit by the earthquake-tsunami disaster was Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island, where more than 100,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless or in need.

Security concerns threatened to hamper efforts to deliver aid in the province, where separatists have been fighting for years for an independent state. Indonesia’s military chief on Tuesday offered the rebels a cease-fire, matching a unilateral one already declared by the insurgents.

The military has nevertheless warned that rebels could rob aid convoys and use refugee camps as hideouts, but has yet to offer evidence to back its claims.

“It is important to note that the government would be placed in a very difficult position if any foreigner who came to Aceh to assist in the aid effort was harmed through the acts of irresponsible parties,” the Indonesian government said in a statement.

Asked if those who failed to register with the government before travelling outside the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, would be expelled, Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said: ”I think that is one possibility.”

The UN health agency said the government’s decision would not affect its relief work in Indonesia.

“We work through the government and so we get clearance through the government,” said Roy Wadia, a World Health Organisation spokesman. “We follow the protocol even during a crisis.”

Getting help to the neediest is already a logistical nightmare, with roads washed away or blocked by downed trees. A bottleneck of round-the-clock aid flights on Sumatra forced authorities to open a new airport this week on the nearby island of Sabang.

But in New York, a senior official in the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs was upbeat on the progress of aid deliveries following the disaster that struck 11 nations in Asia and Africa.

In Sri Lanka, “the overall relief effort … has really gone over the hump,” Kevin Kennedy told reporters Tuesday. “They think they have a good grip on things. The food assistance, if that can be used as a barometer, has been delivered to all the affected people in Sri Lanka.”

But he said some villages along the hard-hit west coast of Sumatra had yet to be reached. He said the UN’s World Food Program was already delivering food assistance to 300,000 people on the island.

While pledges have poured in, Egeland warned that the United Nations does “not yet have the cash in hand required to meet even the most urgent needs,” and called on governments to honour their promises of aid.

The British aid group Oxfam said it fears money earmarked for African relief may be shifted to Asia and urged countries to confirm that their donations would be “new” money, not diverted from another aid project.

“At the moment we’re looking at Germany, who have confirmed that all of the money that they’re pledging is new money,” Oxfam spokeswoman Amy Barry said. “Nobody else has done that so far.”