As the death toll from the 26th December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis climbed higher and higher, the world watched with horror. Aceh, nearest the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the gigantic destructive waves, suffered the most. Here the death toll was estimated at 250,000 by the end of February. Tens of thousands had been injured and over 400,000 inhabitants were homeless. Whole villages were devastated along with large parts of the main population centres of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh; homes, livelihoods and many, many lives were obliterated by the debris-charged flood. The disaster is one of the largest in human history.
For the Acehnese, the instant tragedy of the quake-tsunami came on top of a long drawn out disaster - years of violent conflict and indiscriminate terror at the hands of Indonesia's military in its attempt to crush the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement). An estimated 10,000 people - most of them civilians - are thought to have died in almost three decades of conflict. While on paper, Aceh became an area of special autonomy in 2002, the disputed territory continued to suffer under military rule. Martial law was imposed in 2003 then downgraded to civil emergency status in 2004.
Aceh was also in deep ecological crisis before the quake-tsunami. Landslides and flooding claimed victims, homes and crops with every rainy season - the protective forests ripped out by illegal logging outfits backed by corrupt politicians and military personnel.
As the international emergency aid response gathered pace, Acehnese civil society remained in deep shock. Many had to face the loss of their families, the loss of all their possessions, total financial ruin, homelessness, ill-health and hunger.
Many Acehnese civil society organisations lost staff, relatives and friends in the disaster. Among those lost were Mohammad Ibrahim, head of the environmental organisation WALHI Aceh, and Acehnese indigenous leader, Pak Keuchik Jailani (see obituary). Local groups nevertheless threw themselves into the emergency relief efforts. They were joined by colleagues from outside Aceh who organised to send assistance, emergency supplies, transport, funds and volunteers in a matter of days after the disaster struck.
These Acehnese and Indonesian society organisations soon began to fear for the future of the disaster-shattered, war-torn Aceh that confronted them. They became concerned that the emergency aid and recovery efforts, while bringing immediate relief to many survivors, could also create their own problems.
There remains a lot of concern about the effectiveness of aid distribution, the high levels of corruption and the lack of participation by tsunami survivors in planning for their own future. There is concern for the protection of human rights and the need to protect land and property rights in the resettlement and reconstruction processes. There are also fears that reconstruction will exert a devastating toll on Aceh's already badly-depleted forests, leading to more fatal flooding and landslides inland. The following reports highlight some of these concerns. They draw on local and international media reports, as well as discussions with civil society groups, international NGOs and journalists, held during DTE's recent visits to Jakarta and Aceh.
In the Meuraxa and Kutaraja areas of Banda Aceh, only about 1,000 people survived out of tens of thousands. In Lammayang village, on the coast near Banda Aceh, only 75 people were left alive out of about 5,000. On some small islands in the Pulau Aceh group, north of Banda Aceh, no survivors were found at all when rescuers eventually reached there in late January.
Some 20,000 refugees from the disaster in Aceh - including over 4,000 children under the age of 17 - fled to Medan, the provincial capital of North Sumatra.
Incredibly, Simeulue and the three small islands of Hinako, Bawah and Asu, off the west coast, close to the epicentre, were not completely submerged as was first reported. Simeulue escaped relatively lightly - although whether this is because of the path of the tsunami or the protective function of its mangrove forest is not known. Over 23,000 people fled to higher ground straight after the massive quake and there were few deaths, even through the northwest part of the island was totally destroyed. On the island of Nias, further south along the west coast of Sumatra, 270 people lost their lives.
The health and psychological impacts of the tragedy on the surviving population are likely to be enormous: agencies are striving to prevent outbreaks of disease; NGOs are calling for more counsellors for the bereaved survivors.
Acehnese society is structured around extended families or clans of 60 or so people. Everyone has lost relatives or has close friends who are still mourning. Under Islamic law, someone who is missing for 40 days is presumed dead. UNICEF has set up a tracing programme to help over 800 separated children to contact their nearest relatives.
A large proportion of people who fled their homes now have nothing. Along with all their possessions, they have also lost their identity cards and papers such as birth, marriage and property certificates and bank documents. They cannot even prove their identity or the fact that they used to own a home and land. For traditional communities who depended on shared local knowledge and natural features to delineate their individual or communal property, changes in the physical landscape - including invasion of the sea and altered river courses - will make it impossible to identify their homes and farmland.
Military personnel in the worst-hit areas were reported to be putting most of their efforts into finding the bodies of their families and colleagues and preventing weapons and equipment from falling into separatist hands during the first few weeks. In other places, troops were still carrying out operations against suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rather than helping relief operations.
Key government offices in Banda Aceh and towns in Aceh Besar and along the west coast suffered structural damage or were full of mud and debris and significant numbers of civil servants were among the dead. Aceh's governor, Abdullah Puteh, has been suspended from office and was in Jakarta awaiting a court hearing on corruption charges. The head of the local social affairs department was sacked in January after criticisms from Jakarta about the slow supply of food and medical supplies in many areas.
By early February, the military and officials from Jakarta had assumed control and more troops had been sent to Aceh. However, tight security measures hampered the movements of international humanitarian organisations and there were concerns that food and medical supplies were still not reaching all homeless communities (IDPs) as the Department of Social Affairs was having problems with the large numbers of those in need.
In the face of such devastation and human tragedy, it is hard to find any positive news. But there is some. Despite the huge numbers of dead and displaced people; severe shortages of clean drinking water; appalling sanitation in refugee camps; heavy rains; and the poor levels of pre-disaster health care, there have been no epidemics in the affected communities.
People who have lost their homes and families are caring for others who are also bereaved. The amount of moral support which survivors are providing each other cannot be over estimated. Mosques and muslim prayerhouses have, in general, suffered less damage than other buildings and provide a focus for many shattered communities in this deeply religious society. The religious festival of Idul Adha, which fell in late January, brought the muslim population closer and allowed surviving relatives to grieve together.
Civil society organisations' contributions
This newsletter does not attempt to describe the many constructive efforts of local Acehnese groups, national civil society organisations and international NGOs which are working in a wide variety of practical ways to support the tsunami survivors. Their activities range from bringing clean water supplies to remote communities to assisting refugees who wish to get on with the task of reconstructing their homes; from providing trauma counselling to advocacy for survivor participation in reconstruction planning and implementation and publishing updates to inform the wider world what is really going on.
Koalisi HAM - human rights coaltion, Aceh www.koalisi-ham.org/
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The situation was chaotic in the first few weeks. Villagers from islands off the north and west coast were desperate to get to the mainland, not realising that conditions there were even worse than those they left. Relatives from all over Aceh, Medan and as far as Jakarta poured into Banda Aceh to look for their families while those made homeless by the disaster were streaming out of the city fearing a major outbreak of disease due to the large numbers of unburied bodies. Reports of looting in Banda Aceh were fewer in the second week after the police issued orders to shoot.
The destruction in some areas was complete. Calang was even more badly affected than Meulaboh, but flows of aid only began two weeks after the disaster. Only 30% of its 11,500 population survived. Substantial numbers of displaced people are gathered in temporary settlements far inland where they have walked to find supplies or relatives. Several thousand IDPs were reported to be in Takengon in the highlands of central Aceh. Corruption, bureaucracy and government fears of the GAM meant aid has been slow to reach the poorest of the poor.
Medan was also an important staging post in the initial stages of the disaster response. The small airport in Banda Aceh had been damaged so large cargo planes could not land. Supplies were offloaded onto smaller planes or helicopters. At one point, Medan airport was so congested that relief flights had to wait hundreds of miles south in Pekanbaru, Riau. As the weeks went by, international agencies moved out of Medan, advancing field operations to bases in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh while programme administration was pulled back to offices in Jakarta. Co-ordination between the Indonesian authorities in North Sumatra and Aceh has been poor, to the extent that - by early February - there were still no plans to help several hundred of the most severely injured people return after they had been airlifted from decimated villages in Aceh and the islands off the west coast to hospitals in Medan and Jakarta. There were reports that survivors in state hospitals in Medan had to pay for medical care, whereas those in field hospitals set up by international agencies were treated free.
EyewitnessThis is the eyewitness account of Pak Yurian, a man in his sixties who is village secretary of Blangme in Aceh Besar District and is now acting head of the Acehnese indigenous network, JKMA Aceh. The earthquake began at around 7.55am local time of 26th December 2004. "It is hard to describe the disaster. I was at home - to be precise, in the hamlet of Lamkuta, Blangme when this terrifying earthquake struck. About twenty minutes later, there were a lot of people shouting "The water is coming!". I immediately told my family and neighbours to run for the hills across the ricefields at Blang Gentet. When I reached the fields I tripped over a dike because I was looking behind me while I was running. I saw this wall of water about 30 metres high and there was this thundering noise like the sound of an aircraft engine. In just a few seconds I was knocked over and tossed around by the wave. I tried to save myself and suddenly my hand grasped a tree trunk which had been carried away by the seawater. The wave swept me about 500m to the east of Gentet. Then came the second wave, which was even more dreadful. That swept me away again right to Gentet which is about 2km from where I started. At that point I had no idea where my family was. Then, when the water went down, I heard two of my children call me and together we walked to the safety of higher ground in Gentet. I knew then that my wife and another of my six children had died, although to this day their bodies have never been found".
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Reports from the ground in January said that aid delivery was being delayed because of TNI control and reporting requirements. Communities believed to be pro-GAM were being discriminated against in the delivery of aid, meaning that they may have been going without desperately needed food and daily necessities.
At the same time, many ordinary Acehnese tsunami survivors, whose mistrust of the military and the government authorities runs very deep, continue to stay away from the IDP camps, to avoid having their movements monitored by the authorities.
Report from a camp...Last Tuesday evening, 2 persons from..GAM,were accosted by the military. One was shot, the other captured. The latter has 1 wife and 2 children, who are victims of the tsunami, staying at a camp. On Wednesday, 7 army people came into the camp, while quite a big number of them surrounded the camp. The camp coordinator, a young man, who met them was hit on the face 5 times and twice on his chest just because he was asked if he was the village head, and he said he wasn't. After that, everybody in the camp [was] put under the fierce afternoon sun from 1-3 pm. The captured GAM member was taken to the group, was asked to identify any other GAM member in the group, he said there was none, and was asked to kiss his children goodbye. We did not know as of his fate since then. After, the whole camp was terrified, logistic supplies was stopped. (Urban Poor Linkage Information Center 5/Feb/05)
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The report, Preliminary Damage and Loss Assessment, by national planning agency, Bappenas, estimates total damages and losses at US$4.45 billion (Rp41.1 trillion), which amounts to a full 97% of Aceh's GDP. The assessment found that the disaster hit families, and private livelihoods hardest - including farmers, fisherfolk, shopkeepers - as they sustained about 78% of the total damage and losses, while the public sector sustained about 22% of the total. The human toll among fishing and farming communities is the highest. Almost a third of those who lost their lives are thought to have been involved in agriculture and 10-15% of fisherfolk in the 18 affected kabupaten (districts) are believed to have died.
The assessment found:
Bappenas' preliminary assessment put economic damage to the environment at Rp6,180 billion (US$675 million), most of which consists of losses in environmental services. The report points to "long term loss of economic opportunities and environmental services from damaged reefs and forests which will need at least a generation to recuperate".
Before the tsunami, there were about 100,000 hectares of coastal reefs in the affected area, with roughly 30% live coral. The report states that the mangroves around Banda Aceh, the badly damaged provincial capital, had been cleared and converted into 36,597 hectares of fish or shrimp ponds. Environmentalists had for years warned against mangrove destruction for shrimp ponds which leave coastlines unprotected and devoid of their former biodiversity (see also mangroves article).
The tsunami caused full damage to the 25,000 hectares of mangroves in poor condition.* In 2000, there were an estimated 30,000 hectares of mangroves in good condition (around Simeulue island) 286,000 hectares in fair condition in addition to the 25,000 ha in poor condition, according to data quoted in the assessment. The tsunami also caused 30% damage to 97,250 hectares of coral reefs and 20% damage to 600 hectares of seagrass beds. It destroyed an estimated 30% of forests in the affected area.
Possible contamination by damaged industrial installations was also highlighted in the assessment. Three major sites were damaged - two oil depots run by state owned oil company Pertamina (one each in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh) and the Semen Andalas Indonesia cement factory in Banda Aceh. The actual and potential pollution include oil leakage, copper slag and lubricating oils. Other possibilities are pesticides and fertilizers leaking from damaged storage facilities, but damage information was not available at the time of the report.
*The Jakarta Post reports that 40,000 ha of mangroves were destroyed by the tsunami (JP 19/1).