Aid groups in Aceh now have to contend with restrictions 

by Orla Clinton
Ecumenical News International

BANDA ACEH,Indonesia — The Indonesian government on Wednesday imposed travel restrictions on foreign aid organizations and international media operating in the troubled province of Aceh which bore the brunt of the tsunami that wreaked havoc in south and southeast Asia.  

      Indonesia’s social welfare minister, Alwi Shihab, told journalists that the restrictions in Aceh on the island of Sumatra were justified on safety grounds. He said a government employee had been kidnapped but offered few details when questioned.  

      The restrictions are seen as an effort to control the influx of foreign aid groups and media that have poured into Banda Aceh, the capital of the province close to the epicenter of the earthquake that triggered the Dec. 26 tsunami, resulting in more than 155,000 deaths in the Indian Ocean rim area. 

      In future, all foreigner aid workers and journalists will have to register with the Indonesian foreign ministry in Banda Aceh outlining their planned activities, as well as any travel plans outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and its suburbs.  

      Disaster assistance groups mobilizing people and resources in tsunami-hit areas like Aceh include Action by Churches Together (ACT) International and the Roman Catholic agency CAFOD, and other groups such as World Vision, the Salvation Army, Quakers, as well as Jewish and Muslim groups. 

      A militant Indonesian Islamic group, the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), which has been helping the stricken, had reportedly warned foreign aid agencies on Tuesday to restrict themselves to their humanitarian mission, and then leave.  

       Another group, the separatist Free Aceh Movement, known by the Indonesian acronym GAM, which has been fighting government troops, had declared a unilateral ceasefire after the tsunami struck, but the government says the group has not halted its violence. 

      The Rev. Bonar Napitupulu, bishop of the (Lutheran) Protestant Christian Batak Church (HKBP) in Sumatra, said there had been “overwhelming” support from pastors and other church members to coordinate assistance in the worst hit areas of Indonesia.  

      The western coastline of Sumatra was the first to be hit by the tsunami, particularly Aceh, Cermin (Serdan Bendagei), Nias and Pantai. Napitupulu called on his church members and people of faith everywhere to “help our friends.” 

      Ria Sidabutar-Pardede, a member of the same Lutheran church speaking in Jakarta said that in one of the denomination’s Banda Aceh churches, about 100 congregation members died, 300 had been left homeless and 70 had to be evacuated to the church hospital in Balige. “The pastor’s home of the church in Banda Aceh and synod building were wiped out,” noted Sidabutar-Pardede. 

      With 3 million members, the HKBP is the largest of 12 Lutheran World Federation member churches in Indonesia. The church said it had established three “coordination posts” in Aceh, Bedagei and Nias Island and assistance was being coordinated with support from the government and military, as well as aid groups.  

      The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Indonesia said casualties in Banda Aceh reached at least 30,000, while Aceh Jayah province had at least 20,500 casualties, the Adventist Press Service reported.

      The total Indonesian death toll is reported at 105,000 making it the country worst hit by the tsunami.