Security concerns plague tsunami disaster relief

Security concerns again plagued tsunami relief efforts, as rebels in Indonesia’s Aceh province accused government troops of ditching an informal truce.

In Sri Lanka, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and a team of envoys were travelling to meet Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in an effort to smooth relief operations there.

More than 30,000 Sri Lankans died in the disaster.

Bickering between the rebels and government over aid deliveries has further strained a fragile cease-fire. While the focus of today’s talks was relief efforts, Petersen and the rebels were also expected to discuss stalled peace talks aimed at ending the island nation’s two decade-long civil war.

Residents on the Maldives headed to the polls today to elect their parliament - three weeks after the elections was delayed by the tsunami. Critics have accused the government of linking reconstruction aid to favourable votes.

Yesterday, rebels in Indonesia’s tsunami-ravaged Aceh province disputed a military claim of killing 120 guerrillas in the past two weeks, saying only 20 of its fighters had died in skirmishes. The rebels said 100 others killed were unarmed civilians.

The renewed hostilities in the nearly three-decade separatist conflict called into question the security of efforts to aid tsunami survivors.

Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said his troops had been forced to kill the suspected rebels because they were interfering with relief efforts. Relief agencies, however, have not reported any disruption to aid work by rebels.

Rebel spokesman Tengku Jamaica denied the rebels were targeting aid convoys, and accused the military of abandoning the cease-fire.

“Talk of stopping offensive operations is a lie,” he said.

With as many as a million survivors in need of food and shelter, humanitarian groups said a US military decision to begin pulling back from relief operations could disrupt the flow of aid.

“My gut feeling is that no, the civilian side isn’t ready to take over,” said Aine Fay, Indonesia director for the Irish aid group Concern. “The American military, the military hardware has been so useful.”

“I’m a bit taken aback that they’re thinking of withdrawing it already,” she said.

More than 11,000 US troops and 16 Navy ships are providing relief support, according to the Pentagon. Since the operation began January 1, they have delivered more than 8,600 tons of relief supplies to the affected region.

Death tolls from the disaster have varied widely, from about 158,000 to 221,000, in 11 nations.