The Jakarta Post, January 6, 2005
Human rights group says Indonesian military incompetent,
abusive
The Jakarta Post, Thursday, January 6, 2005.
BANGKOK (DPA): The Indonesian military is hampering efforts to distribute aid to
tsunami survivors in Aceh province, denying assistance and even abusing some
survivors, a regional human rights organization is alleging.
The Bangkok-based Asia Forum listed a host of abuses and incompetence in
managing aid distribution, and demanded that the military allow free flow of food, water
and medical assistance in the devastated region at the northern end of the island of
Sumatra.
The group alleged that soldiers were denying aid to survivors who were unable to
present all of the proper identification documents, in spite of massive destruction to
their homes and possessions.
It also said that local non-governmental organizations were being prevented from
distributed their own aid, while military-held food, water, clothing and medicines were
stockpiled in airports without efficient delivery.
In one case that Asia Forum said it had verified, instant noodles from relief shipments
were being sold at inflated prices to victims at the Banda Aceh provincial capital
airport.
"Women and children who are most vulnerable to diseases are lined up outside the
only running hospital, operated by the military, and are not getting attention they
desperately need for medical relief," the organization said in a public statement.
Asia Forum also criticized the army for continuing to divert resources to its ongoing
counterinsurgency campaign against the separatist guerrilla Free Aceh Movement
(GAM), after rejecting the rebels' Dec. 26 offer of a ceasefire.
Delays in distributing food, water and medicines are causing mounting deaths, the
statement said.
It called on the Jakarta government to suspend martial law in Aceh, limit the army to
humanitarian relief efforts, and ensure the distribution of aid to all affected areas and
people without discrimination. (**)
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