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14 January 2005



Indonesian Military Demands Aid Workers Take Troops Along

Before the tsunami hit Indonesia’s Aceh province, the place was known to the outside world, to the extent it was known at all, as the site of a secessionist war. After the waters receded, the rebels and the Jakarta government suspended hostilities owing to the act of God. The Indonesian army [TNI, by its acronym in the official Bahasa language] has decided it will take advantage of the situation and has demanded relief workers bring military escorts if they leave the towns of Banda Aceh and Meulobah. How better to reconnoiter the area and manipulate aid resources?

Like any guerrilla movement, the rebels survive and flourish thanks to the support of the local population. The local population currently relies on the funds and goods brought in by the global aid effort (which incidentally is humanity at its best – what old Abe Lincoln called the “better angels of our nature”). And at the moment, the government does not control those funds, those goods or access to them.

However, if relief workers are required to have armed troops at their side as they hand out food, clean water, clothes and as they rebuild the infrastructure, then the Jakarta regime will be able to favor those who favor it. Aid will become a political tool, and that is not what anyone who donated money in the last three weeks wanted.

That is not to say that the rebels have a good cause. Like most secessionists, they are distant from the political seat of power and feel left out. But rather than develop their province, forge business ties with others and win political power through peaceful means, they have opted to take up guns, which is never a pro-development move. Under Suharto and Sukarno, Indonesia suffered under a rather malignant dictatorship. However, the nation has made great strides in democratizingof late. There is a potential for a political solution now.

Finally, the TNI is still smarting from the loss of East Timor. At the other end of the Indonesian archipelago, the TNI fought long and hard, but unsuccessfully, to prevent independence for that area. Its prestige and self-respect demand that Aceh’s secessionists fail. In order to save lives and fix the region, relief agencies and their financial backers may have to live with this – but they needn’t like it.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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