A measured and responsible response to the volcano eruption? I can’t quite decide . . .

Perhaps Indonesia has learned from the 2004 Tsunami the cost of accepting foreign "assistance."  Or am I being too kind?  They are talking about "using their own resources" because they don't know how long this disaster will be and what its ramifications are (as happened with the tsunami).  Perhaps the government feels the same way I do about the boatloads of unsupervised reconstruction aid having done more harm than good. Is this a 10-year anniversary coincidence?  A seismic shift, so to speak? Who can say?

News: Indonesia 
Foreign aid told to wait amid volcano eruption in Indonesia 
(www.devex.com) By Lean Alfred Santos 
3 February 2014

Almost three months after its first volcanic eruption in recent times, Mount Sinabung in northern Indonesia continues to inflict damage after at least 14 more people, including children, died after getting caught in the volcano’s scorching ash cloud on Saturday — a growing figure as days go by, but something that shouldn’t alarm the international aid community just yet.

That’s according to a United Nations official based in the country, who stressed that the international development community, despite its good intentions to always help out in times of disaster, should in this case let the governments figure it out on its own first because it knows best how to respond to the needs of their own people.

Foreign aid workers should only be deployed if the government asks them to, noted Nova Ratnanto, emergency response specialist at the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Indonesia.

“In my opinion, the government is confident in making use and exhaust its national resources. The government has appointed several agencies including the disaster management to lead other ministries to join in and work in the locations,” Ratnanto told Devex. “So as long as we don’t hear from the government yet, international assistance will have to stand by.”

He added: “When we convey to them [what’s needed], they could easily meet the need. They could have it in their operational plans … What [they should] do, I think for now, is monitor and wait whether in one second or two they are needed.”

The almost 10,000 families displaced by the volcanic eruption are currently housed about 10 km away from the crater, according to Ratnanto, who said the the government fears more people may have perished as bodies have been retrieved only from the safe areas inside the exclusion zone.

“The restriction is the path of the lava flow, so they can only retrace and retrieve the bodies in the safest place [not within the 5 km radius considered as the hazard zone],” he explained.

Finding one’s place

So far, a handful of international organizations, including U.N. agencies like the World Food Program and UNICEF, have been active in helping the displaced by the eruption, but all through previously established programs in collaboration with government ministries.

“What the United Nations [and other groups] are doing is support the resources in the different areas affected because the government, so far, has not asked for international assistance considering that some international agencies have local partners. The government is so far responding to the emergency,” he said.

This is in contrast with what happened three months ago in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, where the devastation was much more severe and extended. In addition, in that case the storm itself was gone after a day, whereas Mount Sinabung continues to threaten local communities with further eruptions.

Ratnanto explained this situation makes it harder for the international community to fully commit and — in principle — commit to a specific amount of aid.

“It will be different than if you see Haiyan in the Philippines that some of the international groups and U.N. agencies are free to provide assistance, no. Indirectly, the U.N. agencies, at this moment, are doing that while monitoring the situation and are standing by,” he noted. “This is a slow-moving disaster. We cannot predict when it will end.”

But, at the end of the day, it’s all about finding one’s right place in the grander scheme of the relief and rehabilitation operations. Ratnanto said waiting for the call for help is tantamount to respecting the sovereignty and capacity of a nation as well as being humble to admit that people — ideally — know best how they will recover from the tragedy.

“This is so because it’s political really. First because the president already gave directions to the ministries. We need to allow the government to implement what the instructions are. We cannot just simply jump in. No, we cannot. So we let them do and we are supporting them,” he concluded.

A Volunteer Sticks With Aceh

I received a lovely write-up in the New York Times yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/world/asia/19iht-aceh.html?scp=1&sq=aceh&st=cse

A Volunteer Sticks With Aceh By PETER GELLING
Published: January 18, 2010
LAMTUI, INDONESIA — When Muhammad Ali Ar first met Sara Henderson, he was in a state of shock. He had been recently torn from his family by a mighty flood of water and swept kilometers away to a strange, ruined village on Aceh’s western coast.
“I was completely traumatized. Everything was gone. I could only think about where my family was,” he said.
He would later learn that a tsunami, triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004, had devastated much of Aceh, Indonesia’s northernmost province, killing about 170,000 people there, including Mr. Ali’s entire family.
“It was too hard to be alone with my thoughts,” Mr. Ali, 47, who had been a deputy village chief before the disaster, said recently outside a newly constructed house in this village. “I felt that I needed to work to keep my mind occupied, but there was no work anymore.”
On the other side of the world, Sara Henderson, now 68, had just celebrated Christmas in New York City with her four children and nine grandchildren.
She had been living in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, for more than a decade before the tsunami, first as a banker, then as a retiree.
Her unlikely path — from one of the few women in management at the regional New York bank Marine Midland to senior vice president at NatWest in Hong Kong and then Ecoban in Jakarta — would eventually lead her to the remote western coast of Aceh, one of the most devastated areas, and then on to some of the most isolated villages in all of Indonesia, many of them ravaged by a 30-year civil war.
“I never thought I’d be doing anything like this,” she said.
When she returned to Jakarta after Christmas, an Indonesian friend asked her to go to Aceh to see whether she might be able to help. Thinking she would be there for no more than a few days, Ms. Henderson agreed.
“It was not a pretty sight,” she recalled. “When you got down into the more isolated areas, there were tents in the mud, and there were people walking around with these dead eyes. It was heartbreaking.
“But what made me want to help most of all was that they were still walking around. I thought to myself, if I had lost just one child, let alone all my children and all my grandchildren, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed. I couldn’t live. I was amazed at their resiliency. Someone had to help them.”
The same drive that led her to first take a job in Asia so long ago has now turned this Brooklyn-born banker into one of Aceh’s longest-serving aid workers.
“It shows what a nut case I am. I mean, when I first started building houses I had to pay contractors, but there were no banks in Aceh, and there was still the war. I’d have to stuff the equivalent of $30,000 under the driver’s seat, while passing through 32 military checkpoints as we went through GAM country,” she said, using the Indonesian acronym for the separatist rebels.
Another six months would pass before a peace agreement was signed between Jakarta and the rebels, ending almost three decades of civil war and allowing the free movement of aid around the province. During that time, Ms. Henderson would drive 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, or more nearly every day on a broken, sometimes nonexistent road. Sometimes she would board a rickety boat for hours to reach villages where she, and often only she, was working.
“We work in very isolated places. It isn’t sexy,” she said. “But someone has to do it. You can’t write these people off because they live in the wrong area. A lot of the discontent is in those areas.”
Five years later, the organization she founded to help tsunami victims, Building Bridges to the Future Foundation, is one of the few international aid groups still working in the province. With reconstruction largely finished, most of the others have left.
“It is no surprise that Sara is still working in Aceh,” said Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who headed the central government’s Aceh Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for four years. “She has such a commitment to the Acehnese people, and I know she feels that the work in Aceh is far from finished.”
It was Ms. Henderson who first hired Mr. Ali, giving him the work he needed to distract him from all that he had just lost. Together with an economics lecturer named Muslim Djalil, who took a year and a half leave from his university to help Ms. Henderson, they built 51 houses in the village of Rumpet, using Ms. Henderson’s own money.
Mr. Ali is now remarried, with two children and a new house.
“Sara is like a mother to me,” he said. “I couldn’t be in this situation today without her. And that’s true for a lot of people. I pray every day for her safety.”
Ms. Henderson says she travels to New York several times a year, because if she didn’t her children would “kill her.” But she adds that she often feels bored in New York and yearns to return to Aceh.
“Sometimes I’ll take my children out to dinner, and I’ll start thinking about how much this amount of money could do for the people in Aceh,” she said. “It’s hard for me to be away sometimes.”
So Ms. Henderson and her foundation press on. She has now focused on creating sustainable livelihoods in a province that is suffering from high rates of unemployment. In Lamtui, she has trained villagers to manage a small goat dairy, the first in Aceh.
“All of Sara’s work has been amazing, but I think her work in conflict-affected areas really stands out because she is working in very remote villages, some only accessible via five-hour boat rides, where no other NGO is present,” said Lillianne Fan, donor liaison to Aceh’s provincial government for the United Nations Development Program.
Ms. Henderson also built the province’s first women’s center at the request of Mr. Kuntoro, of the Aceh Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency, and has established small schools that teach former separatist combatants reading, writing and other skills in each of the roughly 30 villages where she has worked.
The list goes on. She took over Oxfam’s water purification program when the aid group pulled out of West Aceh in 2006. Last year her foundation helped provide aid to the nearly 200 Muslim Rohingya refugees who landed in East Aceh after fleeing Myanmar.
“When I talk about all this, it feels like it isn’t me, like I am talking about another person,” she said. “I guess because I never thought I could do something like this.
“I am not the same person I was five years ago, and in some ways, I feel that I wish I had gotten into this earlier,” she said. “I mean, my doctor said to me the other day that 70 today is like the 40 of 10 years ago. I feel that 40 is a little old for me. There are days when I feel 20.”

The Aceh Timur Diaries

I’m back in Aceh, have been here about two weeks, seeing all the exciting things JMD has been doing since my last visit. I’m trying to make some headway with some donor agency reps as well, since we now have proposals in to both UNIFEM and the Multi Donor fund for projects totaling over $4 million! I have high hopes that we will become a key player in sustainable livelihoods here. Unfortunately, or perhaps what’s sadly fortunate, is that the UNIFEM funding can’t have been offered at a more crucial time in the history of the province. With the increased legislative support of enacting stricter applications of shar’ia (Islamic) law, the Indonesian government stands to negate a many of the great human rights strides it has made over the past several years, most notably with respect to women and their equal treatment/protection under the law. The UNIFEM grant would allow us to assist the government in implementing some of the very good human rights protection laws it has on the books, through a district-wide series of programming revolving around women’s centers that offer training, civic education, high school equivalency, health, nutrition, and pre/post natal assistance, and a voice in their community’s development.

So I’m glad I’m here for many reasons . . . and yet I don’t want to forget all the good things this agency has already done. So in my spare time this trip (ahahahahahaha) I decided to write a series of articles that could turn into something else in the future, describing in detail some of our more challenging and successful programs. The first one I’d like to share concerns a project funded through SERASI/USAID in the sub-district of Simpang Jernnil, in the Aceh Timur District. I think I want to call it The Road to Hope.

The district of Aceh Timur is the poorest in the entire province of Aceh --which is saying a lot. And Sempang Jernnil is the poorest sub district in Aceh Timur. It lies miles and miles from other villages and the only access, taking over 4 hours, is by 4 wheel drive vehicle, hoping it has not rained lately since you will not be able to traverse a 20 meters stretch of the road that one needs to get by before continuing on. Or, you can take a dugout canoe (motorized) for 5 hours up river and 3 hours back down (the current is with you). Either way it is an onerous trip, though it passes though one of the most beautiful areas of the province we have ever seen.

For over 64 years, the government has been saying that it will build a road connecting Langksa (the largest nearby city) to Sempang Jernnil). If such a road did exist then the travel time would be cut to 30 minutes at the outset. So it really opens up an entire new world for people living here. They can attend schools, trade, go out and get jobs and come home at night, etc. The road and our project there are their two symbols of hope. The government has started building it but it is very slow going. JMD had an idea: to video both the progress of our project and the progress of the road. It’ll be a race to the finish, and to see who will be the turtle and who will be the hare.

Our first visit to Sempang Jernnil took place in February, when we were assessing the Rohingya refugee camp. We had been invited by the government to assist with this camp, located in the village of Idi. In talking to the local government officials we were asked if we could help them by trying to encourage NGO’s to come to the District and help them. Not one NGO except for a few local ones had done anything to help the people of this very large district. The infrastructure in Aceh Timur is so bad that it is hard to maneuver around, and administering assistance of any kind is next to impossible. We told the local authorities we would try to raise money for a small project, and asked where in the neighboring vicinity they needed it the most. A few hours later, lo and behold there was the sub-district head coming to see us and telling us how much they needed help in Sempang Jernnil. He wanted us to go there the next day, and we agreed. If only we knew then what we know today! I have photos of that first trip that I’ll post here shortly--

We were lucky to have a four wheel drive vehicle. As I mentioned, Sempang Jernnil lies 5 hours by road from Idi and is totally inaccessible when it is raining or has just rained. Thirty minutes at the most by car if there were a road, but 5 hours in reality, on what could only be called a road if one had a very good imagination.

As we bumped along, Dina, my JMD program manager, and I were really curious as to what we would find. We had been to many isolated places before but this seemed to take the prize. We arrived to find the entire village waiting for us with a big feast. I was the first white person they had ever seen and we were the first non- local NGO who had ever come close to them.

Many of the people who have settled there are not Acehnese but are ethnic minorities like Gayo, transplanted Javanese and many other Indonesian from all over. All families have been there a long time and all are Muslim.

The sub-district of Sempang Jernnil is comprised of 8 villages; the capitol of this sub-district is also called Sempang Jernnil. Two villages are within 15 minutes of the capitol by the river or walking; the farthest lies 2 ½ hours by boat and motor bike. In 2006 a massive flood wiped out most of the houses in Sempang Jernnil and its neighboring villages. In the entire sub-district, 6 villages were destroyed and about 10 people died. The schools, hospitals and most of the homes were destroyed beyond repair. The government gave each family 15 million IRD, but a new house cost more than 30 million so families have been unable to rebuild. A few local NGO’s came to their aid but that was only for emergency relief. Today there is one school, a small clinic, the office of the head of the sub district (but he is only there 3 times a week), the police office, and 26 TNI families. This is very strange because none of us had ever seen TNI living in a village. We couldn’t get a straight answer when we asked what all these Indonesian military families were doing in this far-off place. But to an outsider it all looked very calm and orderly.

The government provides rice to the villages, and most men make their living in illegal logging or fishing so they can buy vegetables and necessities for substance living. It is a harsh example of rural poverty, even for Indonesia.

After lunch we met with the local officials to discuss what we could do. They were in desperate need of agriculture assistance, additional livestock, and technical education as well as basic literacy skills. Nearly everyone in the village is illiterate.

We assured them they we would make our best efforts to find funding for a project there, but we could not promise anything . . .

***
After returning from our first trip to Sempang Jernnil we decided that we would apply for funding to implement one of our typical projects there, but with a bit of a twist. The community had volunteered 10 hectares ( about 25 acres) of land for our project so we thought that instead of goats we would raise ducks since ducks are cheaper to buy, there is a great need for eggs in Aceh, and the eggs are far easier to transport than milk or goats. We also decided that since we didn’t need to grow feed for goats, we would increase our variety of cash crops and add some vegetables that we didn’t normally grow but which here were part of the local diet.
We submitted our proposal and 8 months later we received an award from USAID/SERASI. were We were so excited we called the local government immediately-- they were even more excited than we were!! We said we would be there shortly and started to plan our trip. At least now we were better prepared, since we knew where we were going and what we were getting into.

Off we went on our next adventure: me, Dina, Sarah, our Associate Director based in Banda, who had not been with us on the first trip, and Mirza our agricultural expert. We were told that this time we had to take the boat since there had been a lot of rain and the road was impassable. We all thought it would be a great experience and that we would see so much more of the landscape that surround Sempang Jernnil. It also would give us a chance to see just how isolated this area really was.

Since I had a bad back and was not sure I could make the 7-9 hours drive to Langska (the biggest city near the water), we flew to from Medan, and from there it was only 3 hours to Langska. So after a good night’s sleep in a nice hotel in Medan, off we went in a rented car. (Our agency car was arriving from Banda later that day). We had some appointments with local government people and in fact had a large meeting with the local heads of the Ministry of Agriculture and Education, some of their staff, and the District Head’s assistant.

The conversation was interesting but totally confusing since they thought we were going to set up a Cow Breeding Center and we kept trying to explain that we might have enough money in the grant for chickens but Cows and breeding centers where not what our grant was about. We must have explained what we wanted to do 100 times but nobody really understood except the representatives from the Ministry of Education, who gave us every assurance that they were behind us 100 per cent. They were very grateful.

During this meeting I made a tiny faux pas—looking back on it it’s kind of funny but it sure was embarrassing at the time. I had been told that the people in Sempang Jirnnel were an ethnic minority whose traditions included the raising and eating of pigs. I was so excited because I thought it would be a great addition to what we already do. I kept asking Dina to ask them about the pigs and she was very reticent about doing it but I insisted. So she took a deep breath, gave me a look, and then asked if there was any chance that we could raise "the forbidden animal." They asked which one that was. She said, swallowing hard, “Pig.” Everyone grew terribly pale and fidgety. Finally someone explained that pigs were absolutely forbidden in Aceh—even there. So much for that idea!! It had its humorous side to it.

When we had finally lost our patience with the Agriculture representatives who kept insisting that cows were on the menu, and finally told them straight out that if they wanted cows or goats or buffalo they should find an NGO that had the money since we did not. We then asked them very nicely if they would prefer if we found another village who wanted to work with us on a duck project. That was suddenly the end of that discussion, and from then on they were very happy with us and expressed pleasure that we had come.

After the meeting we decided to retire to our hotel, which although simple was very clean and had a/c--a must for me. We had just gotten there when the sub-district head showed up, wanting to meet with us. It seemed that there was so much excitement about the grant and our plans that he wanted to talk to us before the next day’s trip. He wanted us to know how much he appreciated our getting the grant and wanted to know what we had planned. We had spent quite a bit of time telling him and explaining it to him, when he told us that he had changed the plan and now the community was putting up 50 hectares (about 123 acres) of land and he wanted the entire village to be the beneficiaries. We tried to explain how hard that would be and that we had very limited funds, but he insisted that that was what he wanted. He did not want any jealousy among the people, he said.
What to do?
****

Things are heating up . . .

On September 9th the head of the US-Indonesian Chamber of Commerce sent me two extremely disturbing articles regarding the decision by the Acehnese legislature to implement a harsher type of Sharia law, with physical penalties up to an including death for offenses such as adultery, relationships between unmarried couples, homosexuality, operating beauty salons, gambling, etc. [Students demand harsher sharia law implementation, Hotli Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh; The Jakarta Globe; Aceh Prepares To See Stonings, Lashings as Law, Nurdin Hasan & Dessy Sagita]. He went on to say “I am asking my Acehnese members about this. They want me to attend a meeting in Aceh next year to promote investment but I doubt I can be of much help if the Acehnese want to become a Taliban outpost.”

I sent this article to a group of daily contacts including Aguswandi, the author of the article in my last post, with a note expressing concern about not only the violation of human rights that could occur, but the reluctance on the part of outside investors to bring much-needed economic development to the province in light of these new developments.. (One article stated that many Acehnese, including students, were actually in favor of the new legislation.)

Aguswandi was first to reply.

This is so outrageous. we should stop this 'acehnistan' project by conservative Islam. this law is an insult on Acehnese tradition, history and Islam itself. conservative Islam is hijacking the peace in Aceh to push their own agenda. actually the problem is not them, but us who do very little to stop this.

Then I received this from the Pak Nur Djuli, head of BRA, which is the agency designated to assist ex-combatants.

For your information, the Governor has REFUSED to sign the Kanimef and has asked mendagri to veto it, and about a hundred people mostly women demonstrated at Dpra and were hackledo by men in white and turbans. These are activists from lina, Kontras, Lbh, flowers.Shadia made a statement to serambi saying it is against mou but not published. You know what yarmen's stand is on this aguswandi. Where are Aguswandi's PRA people? It is easy to write smart articles to a convinced gallery. I want to know where is the old Aguswandi I used to admire! The one who stood up against the military at the peak of the conflict? Sara, don't just bark at the wrong tree against us acehnese, try to voice your complain against Jakarta and not just by emails, use your congressmen in washington. But of course you are not going to do that, indonesia has just become your country's hero número UNO for killing nordin top.

A little background: Aguswandi, the author of the article in my last post, was a student leader during the conflict. He also was a human rights activist. He was not in GAM (the resistance movement) but rather in the student organization. He lived in exile in England for about 5 years, and has also worked at BRA.
Pak Nur Djuli is 60-something and was in exile in Malaysia and Singapore for many years. He remained close to the GAM governing body during that time. He was made Head of BRA a few years ago due to pressure by well-connected individuals abroad. He is also the person who asked JMD to begin projects in Sawang, which we did, when no one else was willing to take the risk. Prior to this letter I believed we were on good terms and I have no idea what I did to piss him off; nothing I said reflected anything but admiration for the Acehese whom we serve.

I felt better, however, after receiving this from a valued staff member at our headquarters in Banda:

Sara:
I can't believe Pak Nur would send his reply to everyone on this list, criticizing you and Aguswandi in front of everyone. It is very rude.
We've been helping Acehnese people getting back on their own feet with livelihood and education. We're not voicing our opinion, we’re just doing our job directly at the grass root level, risking our lives going to most dangerous places in Aceh (which even Nur Djuli or any ex GAM commander would never go after the mou), and you've used your personal resources because you really care about the Acehnese people.
I'm upset that Nur Djuli would say such harsh things to you in public emails. I don’t understand where Pak Nur stands in all this, or what he has done for his own people.
If I were you I would tell him what you've been giving to Acehnese people, being away from your family in NY, going to the Aceh jungle, almost being kidnapped twice, you've done your part in the development of Aceh, it's time for him to do something with the new law, since nothing good has come out from his BRA agency yet.

You gotta love her.

During all this, I/we received another note from Nur:
I agree with you on this Sara. I am not really concerned about foreign investments, but of our own understanding of the Syariah law. These parliamentarians are of the old regime, they are on the way out and they are rushing to put everything in place before they left end of this month. If you remember, GAM was against the imposition of the Syariah Law in Aceh as interpreted by GusDur. Now it has been solidified complete with its own bureaucracy and the Syariah Police unit. This is not what Islam is all about.

Aguswandi said we should stop this acehnistan, ok, how my friend? I think beyond coining smart terminology it is rather difficult to do anything about it when we are across the Globe from Aceh, isn't it? You are very right when you say the problem is us who do very little to stop this. During the conflict the Gusdur's imposed Shariah did not work, you know why? Because GAM prevented it, remember the time when GAM forbid Laskar Jihad which is a branch of Jemaah Islamiah from setting up an office in Banda Aceh?? GAM even told them to leave Aceh or else. Even when they tried to make a speech at the Grand Mosque, GAM, not wanting violence in a house of God, just told the mosque authorities to prevent the use of the microphones, forcing them to shift to a small mosque in the outskirt of the town, following which they declared war on GAM and because they said GAM was anti-Islamic. In the new parliament GAM/PW will be the majority, but if the law was already there, it would be very difficult for them to repeal, as that would give those who branded GAM as anti-Islam would have more weapons to prove their point.

Yes Sarah, I am worried. But then again, we Acehnese have somehow always found ways to solve our problems, eventually.... God willing we shall overcome this one too. Those of you who are afraid of getting whipped, well my advice is, don't do it, or just skip Aceh from your agenda. What else could we Acehnese say? If you want to attach strings to your assistance/investment, that's your right, what else you want us to do/say?

BTW. With a stroke of a pen, the President of the Republic CAN overrule any Aceh Kanun! Yes, some democracy huh, but would he? I doubt it, he doesn't want to be branded anti-Islam either ... that's politics for you my friend. He had already refused to veto the Quran reading test rule to be a candidate of the last two elections in Aceh. So why just condemn and threaten not to be friendly with us tiny Acehnese who can even give you visa on arrival, when the real culprits are actually across the Sunda Straits? Aah, but they are very good at anti terrorism, so let's not bother them, right? What's a little matter of human rights? Even Uncle Sam is not too concerned about that.

Yaah, human rights, what indeed we have achieved in the matter so far? Back to Aguswandi, because this is your favorite subject, today Munir's wife and your old friends in Kontras are holding a protest meeting in Rodia Cafe, and this evening they are holding a rally protesting the various attempts to drown the case for good. Why in Aceh? My guess is that because only Acehnese are still concerned about it and consider it is a great honour to have Suciwati visiting Aceh. Her late husband had done very much for Aceh, we owed him a lot and we are not forgetting.

AND meanwhile, Permadi, a shaman member of Parliament in Jakarta has called for war against Malaysia for stealing a Indonesian dance in an TV program produced by the Singapore Discovery Channel ...AND in the streets of Jakarta hundreds of demonstrators armed with sharpened bamboo (bambu runcing) are blocking roads looking for Malaysians, causing a 5 hour traffic jam, forcing Malaysian government to issue a travel warning to its students ...

Gee whiz ... here I am worrying about getting whipped for illicit sex when the whole country is being whipped by some unknown lunar virus ...

HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE !
Peace !
Nur

How many ways can you put your life and values in danger before it is too much?? At what point do you take a stand?? I am sorry for the people of Aceh but not enough to condone this type of behavior. I am so upset. There are over 4 million Acehnese and 100 of them demonstrated. Shame on them. Our agency only looks at this from the humanitarian side, not the political one. Nur should remember that we went into Sawang at his suggestion when no one else did, and as of October we will have been there for two years with 8 projects. We are trying to help Aceh, not destroy it. They are doing it on their own.
I have been embarrassed by my country for 9 years. I do not condone what it does. If Jakarta made them have sharia law than why haven't they gotten rid of it in the 4 years since the Memorandum of Agreement?? Jakarta didn't force the new laws on Aceh, their own people did it.

My reply was short.
If the students are involved it will happen. When Governor Irwandi spoke at the Yale Club on Oct. 26th 2007 in New York he made it very, very clear that being a Sharia state had been forced on Aceh by Gus Dur and Jakarta. I doubt that very much now, since the trend is leaning towards more punishment and a stricter Sharia State.

On September 11 Nur had more to say.

Dear Sara, the women here are furious, but no important NGOs are helping them, fearful of being branded anti-Islam. Shadia and Yanti when attending a forum organized by PEMDA (Aceh Government) as representatives of LINA they clashed immediately with MPs from PKS Mps. Yanti, a very petite woman, stood on a chair to be seen and heard, the MP told her to shut up and read a few verses of the Quran. You think dozens of other people attending,including many major NGO reps would stand up? Shadia let go a barrage of statements declaring the laws against MoU ... nobody supported her. Now LINA is no longer invited anywhere, even the EU and USAID people are keeping a distance from it. MPs from this PKS and PPP openly stated that they should rush with these laws (6 in all) because "if not they will never pass it when we are gone. This will be our legacy ..." They KNOW, PA will not introduce that kind of laws, but will not stand up to oppose it.

What I hate about this discussion is the threat of not investing. Come on, who is the biggest investor in Saudi Arabia? You think oil companies like Exxon would be fearful of some turbaned people and not try to get petroleum exploitation in East Aceh, they are pushing hard for it, but still blocked by the Governor and Bupati, for environmental reasons. There are dozens of big investors in many fields of industries waiting to come in, what hold them?, I can assure you not Syariah, but the lack of electric power!

I am amazed at the nerve of some people at appropriating blame, of condemning the victims. Look at Afhanistan. Who brought in Hamid Karzai who now signed the law that allow a husband to starve his wife for refusing him sex? Who created the Talibans? The so-called fundamentalists were living in their remote mountains in Pakistan and Afghanistan, who brought them into the open to terrorize the world?

It is easy to blame us for not doing anything. I don't appreciate smart asses nicknaming Aceh as Acehnistan or such other derogative terms. Aceh has just come out of 3o years of living in a slaughter house, thousands are still without jobs, uneducated. So the smart ones should not just look down on their own people from the high ivory towers.

I will be in Aceh in about a week. I’ll be there for a month, visiting our programs, trying to make some sense of this and see how we can work and implement programs in this situation. In some ways Nur is right. If we’re administering humanitarian aid, then the only requirement of our recipients should be that they need it. But if some of our aid is designed to promote those very practices that could now be looked upon as “unfriendly” to current law, such as women’s empowerment, widow/at-risk male mentoring programs, etc. what exactly are we supposed to do or think?

Stop the cruel sharia `qanun' in Aceh

Aguswandi , Cambridge Sat, 09/19/2009 12:02 PM Headlines

The sharia qanun passed by the Aceh parliament this week is no less dangerous to Indonesia than the recent terrorist attacks in the capital Jakarta. The qanun will allow for adulterers to be stoned to death, and will put Indonesia on a slippery slope, threatening the rights of its people and risking its proud standing as an international beacon of moderate Islam.
Where the July bombings helped unite Muslims across the country in outrage at the barbarism and inhumanity of radical Islamists, most startlingly, the stoning bill has elicited little public condemnation. Only a handful of human rights groups have voiced their concerns at a law that grossly abuses the rights of Acehnese.
In fact, if the latest qanun is implemented, it will be time to stop referring to Indonesia as an example of civilized and moderate Islam. It will be time to start referring to Indonesia as the new Pakistan of Southeast Asia. Well Indonesia is not yet Pakistan, but it will not be too long before it becomes one. If politicians continue to accommodate hard-liners, allowing this type of conservative sharia to flourish, Indonesia is only a step away from being added the list of Islamic pariah countries that treat their citizens inhumanely. It will only be a few more years before Banda Aceh is the next Peshawar and East Java is the next Swat Valley. In fact, Indonesia may become worse than Pakistan, because even there people are not stoned to death.
There is still time to stop the folly. The central and provincial governments need to strongly object to and forbid the enactment of the law. This must be done soon, though. Even if the governor does not sign off on the qanun, the law will automatically take effect 30 days after its approval by parliament. If this is the case, the government should obstruct this barbaric law by not allocating any budget to the sharia institutions. In fact, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, who is opposed to sharia law, should consider scrapping the Sharia Affairs Office and the Sharia Police that were created in the province by the old corrupt governor, Abdullah Puteh.
There are a few political options to consider. Because the law was passed by outgoing members of parliament in Aceh, the new legislators can still revoke the law. Aceh's new parliament can make two arguments under the Helsinki MOU, which determined power arrangements in Aceh: First, the old parliament has no right to issue any new law; and second, all Aceh laws must follow internationally agreed-upon human rights standards. Because stoning people to death is in direct contravention of human rights, the law is invalid and therefore should be canceled.
Third, and as a last resort, Jakarta has the power to overturn any local regulations that go against the Constitution and national laws. The central government has the right, if not duty, to block this law that is not in the line with the Constitution, which promises to protect human dignity across Indonesia.
Laws can only be changed though with public support. Sharia proponents who are willing to push the country to this intolerable limit have been met unchallenged by their moderate opponents, who, fearful of a backlash, are slow to speak out. Indeed, the actual problem of Islamic conservativism is not the conservatives, but the moderates who are too cautious in their opposition.
In Aceh, where the law was introduced, the only group actively voicing their opinions are, unfortunately, not those who oppose, but those who support the qanun. They are the students and legislator associated with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Islamist Party that is in a coalition with the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.
Despite the rhetoric of the PKS nationally that it is a moderate Islamist group, they are the ones pushing for quick and further implementation of sharia in Aceh. This type of qanun benefits neither Yudhoyono's reputation nor the people in Aceh. It is time for the central government to speak out against this law, even though it would mean facing proponents of sharia in Aceh who are part of the party that supported Yudho-yono in the presidential race.
In fact, this is also a good opportunity to turn upside down the whole process of enacting sharia law in Aceh and Indonesia. The government should strangle the sharia institutions and discourse. It is time for moderate Muslims to say no to the newest sharia in Aceh and any future sharia that insults Islam, Indonesia and the present moderate tradition.

The writer is a fellow at Harvard University's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

Thanks so much Aguswandi , for not only forwarding me this but for writing it. It is 100% right. I do believe though that all the moderate voices, who are unwilling to speak and who seem willing to allow this gross public display of total disregard for people’s lives, will not do one thing to change this. That goes for the President , the Governor on down to the littlest man and woman. No one wants to be branded anti-Islamic so they would rather be seen as pro-barbaric. It is so sad and just breaks my heart. I know how you must be hurting for your province which you love and have fought for.I leave for Aceh on Monday night and am just hoping that there will be no stonings while I am there. Take care and keep up the good fight.
Fondly,
Sara

Priceless

I fear I have offended a higher-up. Oh woe is me whatever shall I do.

We have given this agency time, money and ample opportunity to correctly and adequately address the issues in the Idi camp that they—as receivers of the official funding—should have had in hand from the outset. What do we get? Stalling, obfuscating, and protestations that nothing’s wrong.
I present the latest interchange--in chronological order, so you get the full flavor, but with names changed, because even though we’re reporting public information, I don’t trust anyone these days to not be vindictive. The world of humanitarian assistance is full of, well, humans. Nobody likes to have their flaws exposed.

From: Sara Henderson [mailto:sara@buildingbridgestothefuture.org] Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 10:31 AM
Dear P.
B.R. at UNHCR suggested that I contact you about a severe problem that is happening at the refugee camp in Idi. Before IOM came to Idi on a permanent basis, a group of local NGO's was working there that had divided responsibilities for the refugees at the camp. Since the arrival of IOM there has been much confusion and miscommunication. This seems to be due to a lack of any coordination on the ground between the local NGO's and IOM. In spite of this it appeared that IOM had everything under control. Thus we decided that there was no need for us to continue to supply the camp with food, water, cooking oil, kerosene etc. I wrote to S. F. and others telling them of our exiting the camp. However, last week my staff told me that there were very limited food supplies and only 5 days of rice left. I have to say I was surprised.
My staff and FPRM tried (as they had many time in the past) to get in touch with your staff to discuss this urgent matter, as no one was sure if IOM was going to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the camp. Not only were we confused but the local government had also not been informed. Today N finally made contact with your staff and was told that IOM only provides hygiene kits, and also that it had built a fence. IOM has left the camp in a very precarious state, as there is only rice for today and no funding for tomorrow. Luckily, we still have funds left from one of our donors and will step in at this late point and supply the camp with what is needed.
I regret having to write you about this but we need to all communicate better, cooperate better and consult with one another. Unfortunately, at this time I am in New York but my staff in Aceh is handling this matter. They are concerned because we do not have unlimited funding nor do we have funds to go further than the end of this month. We really hope that we can work together on this critical situation.Thanking you in advance for your kind assistance,
Sara

And his response:

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 12:02 PM, PH wrote:
Hi Sara,

Whatever reports you have from your staff are incorrect. IOM has not left the camp in any manner (much less in a precarious state) and there are no problems with food supplies. IOM has been providing food and cooking supplies as needed since we arrived and will continue to do so in the future. FPRM is regularly providing vegetables, fruit and spices. If FPRM ever needed to stop providing these then IOM will provide the shortfall.

IOM has no communication problems with FPRM, PMI or anybody else there to provide assistance. We are also fully aware of the problems that preceded our being given permission to work in Idi. To link our arrival with confusion and miscommunication is another incorrect statement.

Deplu and the Camat’s office understand IOM’s plan to remain in Idi. On the ground in Idi we have almost daily contact with the Camat and/or his staff.

In short, the situation is not as described by your staff.

Regards
P

So I sent P’s note to my staff and received this:

From: D
Subject: Re: Food in Idi
To: Sara Henderson
Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 1:16 PM
I'm sorry, Sara, I think I have said it incorrectly. It wasn’t that IOM refused to buy the rice because they had already supplied hygiene kits and fences to the camp. They have actually contributed quite lot. However, they did not coordinate their contributions with any existing local organizations or village members that have been working in the camp long before IOM came in. This caused doubling items in the warehouse, and almost all of it now has to be discarded. So now, the rice is truly running out. We should ask IOM if they want to supply rice to the camp.
It is also true that this lack of coordination and not working with other groups has offended the local community, and also those who had been supplying food to the refugees in the past. The person that IOM assigned to the camp is very low level, and inappropriate as a representative of IOM in terms of talking to about issues or needs or getting any response.
We know that IOM is authorized by the Indonesian Government (under Deplu) to provide humanitarian assistance at the camp. But they really need to sit down and begin to initiate open communication and coordination--not only with the Camat, PMI and local authorities, but also with local organizations and groups that have been supplying the camp. IOM might not have communication or coordination problems with the Camat, but they do have problems with local organizations and community groups.

So this is IOM’s way of responding to an immediate need in an appropriate and culturally sensitive manner. That only tangentially results in escapes, tension, confusion, and continual lack of supplies.
I know I’ll sleep better tonight knowing I’ve been put in my place by a higher-up. I guess there’s nothing to worry about, then . . .

Update from the Idi Refugee Camp

Well, things have gone from bad to worse in the refugee camp in Idi, I’m afraid. Despite the best efforts of my dear staff to make sure that the refugees were getting as many basic needs met as we could address, and despite pleas from colleagues here in the US and in Indonesia, it seems that once again, a very large and well-respected humanitarian aid agency has proven itself to be anything but. I’m referring to IOM, the International Order of Migrations, and I’ve been biting my hand to keep from screaming about them in the past, but their inability to get out of their own way has reached crisis proportions and I’m done just sitting back and letting my small but dedicated staff and the residents of Aceh Timur shoulder all the burden of keeping these 200 Rohingya safe and fed and advised (clearly and in their own language) of their future here.

So I’m going to post a bit of correspondence between my staff in Aceh who have been at the camps recently, between me and a colleague who has been a humanitarian aid/governance consultant in SE Asia for years, and a kind reporter from the New York Times, who bent over backwards to cover what it could of this story, which admittedly has fallen to “page 6” due to all the other horrors our world is experiencing right now. But despite all the other font page news, there are still 200 men on a beach at the tip of Sumatra that the largest, most well-funded agencies in the world cannot seem to figure out how to help.

That frightens me.

Dear P:
We hope that all is well with you. L. and I are in New York right now but have been apprised of a severe problem that is happening in Idi Rayeuk with the camp and the local community. We feel that if this is happening in Idi Rayeuk it could be happening in Sabang as well. Following is a field report from our staff who go to Idi every week. Our concerns are as follows:
1. REFUGEES DON’T KNOW THEIR FATE: There is lack of communication with the refugees regarding their ‘status determination process’ and we have tried to convey this to UNHCR, IOM and the US Embassy. While they seem to understand our concerns, it has not changed the situation on the ground. Presumptively, UNHCR and IOM are waiting for Deplu [the Indonesian foreign ministry] to take the lead on communication with the refugees. But this has not happened either.
2. REFUGEES ARE NEAR PANIC: As a result of this communication vacuum, the refugees have now heard about it through the newspapers and are in a state of panic and confusion. The local government has also not been informed officially and has also only read reports in the newspaper.
3. ILL-INFORMED REFUGEES MAY CAUSE LOCAL DAMAGE: The situation has lead to what could be a very bad security issue. Already some refugees have tried to escape again. The more panic that is generated the more likely it is that these men in desperation may attempt a massive escape or some kind of action that will lead to violence. This will spill over into the local community where there is already tension concerning the land that the camp is on. There have been a few violent incidents already in the camp but few are reported to the police. As there is little to no security at the camp how can anyone be assured that the local community is not in danger, particularly when there is so much fear and tension among the refugees?
4. INDONESIA MAY LOSE ALL THE GROND IT HAS GAINED: It seems to be such a shame that for lack of a few words all the good will that Indonesia has generated worldwide with their humane treatment of these refugees could ultimately be perceived as a missed opportunity for Indonesian leadership. Instead it will likely all end in a messy tragedy. As you are well aware, there a group of 55 Sri Lankan boat people who arrived several weeks ago and are now in detention in Meulaboh, Aceh Barat. There has also been an increase of Afghan refugees coming into Indonesia. It is critical that the handling of all refugees by all who are in contact with them (ie, UNHCR, IOM, the government, INGO's) follow international standards and principles not just at a policy level but also at an operational level. Any help you can give us to bring this matter to the attention of the national and international public and government will be so appreciated. Please let us know if there is any possibly of you making inquiries at the Foreign Ministry on this brewing tragedy waiting to happen. We will be glad to provide you direct access to our staff on-site and to local leaders.

Best Regards, Sara

**************************************
So . . . Where’d I get this information? Many sources, including staff eyewitness accounts. Read on:

Dear Sara:
I went to the camp this afternoon after visiting three villages in Aceh Timur. The refugees are now panicked when they read in the newspaper that 114 Bangladeshi would be sent home to Bangladesh soon. The refugees thought all of them would be sent home to their home countries, not just Bangladeshi who want to go home-- Myanmarese Rohingyans and some other Bangladeshis would be sent to Batam. The refugees misunderstood what the newspaper said, and some of them tried to escape from the camp again.

Someone from UNHCR, IOM, or Deplu must come to the camp and communicate clearly to the refugees about their status and the plan of sending some of them back. No one from UNHCR, IOM or Deplu has communicated to them what is going on. Their Bahasa is so limited, that they misunderstand what is in the paper ad what is being told to them. The camp is also running out of rice. We need to supply the camp with rice, since no one else has come to donate to the camp other than FPRM with fish and vegetables (with our funding support). The camp needs 120kg rice a day for the refugees, the cost for rice per day is IDR 850 thousand, and the total for a month would be IDR 26 million. Our funding would be enough to supply rice, vegetables, fish, and water to the camp only for 6 more weeks. We still don't know how long these refugees are going to stay at the camp. UNHCR, IOM and Deplu planned to move them to another place or send them back home, but they wouldn't announce how long these refugees will be staying in Idi Rayeuk.
--D

That, my friends, is how large agencies treat small tragedies.

When IOM came charging in about 3 months ago to “save” the refugees from God knows what fate, pretty literally saying “Out of our way, we’ll handle this--” they did not communicate, cooperate or consult with anyone—the locals, the other tiny agencies already involved, anyone. So alienated and uninformed were the other players that everyone just stop doing what they were doing and left it all to IOM, who was receiving money ( that none of us had) from PRM etc. The local fishermen had been giving free fish since the beginning. Can you believe it? These poor people donated fish almost every day from their catch. They were never informed of anything and then IOM starting buying fish for the camp from outside sources, insulting the local community (and being pretty stupid about spending money they didn’t need to). Now we are informed by D and N that they are running out of rice and also need veggies and fish. We try and try to contact IOM to find out what is going on but to no avail so we are back supplying the camp with food, again. Meanwhile IOM wastes no time taking credit for “managing” the camp and “caring” for the refugees, and doesn’t even have the decency to communicate with us, or the refugees themselves!

All I can say is, thank goodness we were frugal and didn’t spend all our money at the outset, so we can contribute to the food needs of the refugees again.

Another example of David bailing out Goliath . . .

Copy of an email I sent to my JMD/BBF associates yesterday . . .

. . . that I'm angry enough to post here.

Dear All:
D called me this morning and I asked her to prepare a written report on what she told me which is below. I also talked to her about what our next steps should be and they are also listed on the report. I cannot tell you how angry and betrayed I feel by this. People have just sat back and watched us work like dogs and knew we never had to do all that. The local leader has been stealing since day one and no one cared. We have said it over and over. We have begged everyone for help, even IOM, who said they did not have the money and in the meantime they are making a mess of the camp. Where were they when we started ???? Anyway, enough bitching and complaining. Here is where we are now. We are further back than we were before. We have a camp that is not being run at all. There has been a lot of stealing and we cannot stop it since we have no authority. Now we are in a position where everyone who worked on the camp from the locals to the few Internationals have all pulled their support out. Now, if IOM doesn't keep its support up we have no fish. We have no drinking water, we have nothing since the people handling it all are insulted, as well they should be. But now who is going to buy all this? IOM??? WE NOW HAVE A VERY SERIOUS PROBLEM ON OUR HANDS.

D and I discussed what we wanted to do. I guess we could try to rebuild the relationships we had going and get things back to normal but I am not sure we want to do that since as we had no authority we were not given any respect. We also do not have the contacts to get in touch with people at IOM, UNHCR etc and complain. And even if we did complaining it would do us no good. I’m waiting to see what Dina has to say after her meetings, then we can decide if we want to just pull up stakes and leave or if we want to make a go of it. If IOM had so much money why weren't they building latrines and barracks???? I am too angry to go on. PLEASE READ D'S REPORT (BELOW) AND FEEL FREE TO COMMENT.

Sara:
N told me the following on the first night I met him, it will be more tomorrow, I believe, when I'm meeting Assistant I, seeing the camp, and calling up people (IOM, JRS, and HELP).
· IOM had been in the camp for the last 1,5 months or so since they came the first time to undertake the first stage of the verification mandate.
· They had been supplying the camp with many things; hygiene kits, fresh fish, canned food, etc without asking the camp for any donation report.
· So, IOM basically was supplying same things that other NGOs had done for the camp. There double supplies in the camp.
· FPRM, with the funds transferred from us, supplied water (for drinking and cooking) to the camp every day. Suddenly, IOM started supplying water for drinking last week. So, N decided only to supply water for cooking then, instead of doubling everything.
· It seems that IOM gave money to the camp for paying the drinking water. Today, they just found out that the camp had been cheating them. The camp reported they paid for 7 trucks of drinking water every day, while there were only 4 trucks delivered to the camp. The same thing with rice, IOM gave money to buy 10 sacks of rice (you know they have plenty of rice), but there are only 6 sacks delivered to the refugees. Save the children supplied 400 packs of hygiene kits to the camp before UNHCR team arrived, and suddenly IOM delivered toothpaste and soaps to the camp on the same week.
· There's a group of fishermen in Idi, headed by 'Panglima Laot' - the commander, who collected fish from every boat that came back from the sea, and delivered fresh fish to the camp every day either for breakfast, lunch or dinner. N didn't supply fresh fish, he only delivered salted fish to the camp which is fine. That's why N didn't spend so much on fish for the refugees, other than fresh fish, they still have canned sardines in the warehouse
· IOM also supplied fresh fish to the camp without checking if anyone from the village had done so. The group who had been supplying fish to the camp since day 1, was very offended and decided to stop supplying fresh fish, since they believed IOM took that over.
· Now, IOM realized they had been fooled by the camp, and R (the person in charge in the camp) went back to Banda to report about this to his office. N said it seems they're not going to stop supplying the camp after this incident. It is horrible for us to clean the mess they made.
· According to what N said, it sounded like IOM was trying to work with FPRM in the camp, but N refused because IOM has ignored their suggestions since the beginning. IOM will keep one staff placed in the camp--I don't know what for.
· N had tried applying the inventory system in the camp. He has put locks on the warehouse, and record keeping, so anyone taking out supplies from the warehouse needed to sign, and be checked by the refugee representative. But the records between the logistic person, the kitchen coordinator, and the refugee representative on the inventory supplies were never balanced. The lock had been damaged intentionally a couple of times, and things were missing from the warehouse.
· JRS tried to come and offered to work together with FPRM on the camp, but N refused to do it. I'm glad that N never said no to work with us on the refugee camp like he has done to JRS and IOM.
· Other than IOM and this fishermen’s group, no one delivers donations to the camp anymore. They still have plenty of rice, and canned sardines, but the instant noodles are spoiled already.
· Camat now has no idea how to take care of these refugees since he has run out of money (which I believe been donated to the camp, but never recorded and reported properly). He actually contacted me on Sunday but he didn't ask for anything, just asking when I'm coming down to Idi.
· IOM had donated a refrigerator to the camp to store fresh fish, so I'm not going to buy a refrigerator.

Therefore, my plan is:
· I'm going to meet with assistant I first, check with him about what he knows about the camp situation. I will ask him again to ask the camat to make an accountable report.
· I'll call R, the IOM guy in charge in the camp for the last two months. Getting information on donations IOM had delivered to the camp, and asking them if they want to continue. They should work with us.
· I'll call L from JRS to find out the status of their plan to help the refugees, and how we can actually work together on this.
· I'll go to the camp and see how it's going on there. If the Camat asks me for any money, I'll pretend the money we received had been returned a month ago. We can ask for other NGOs to donate in-kind to the camp, but only if a proper report is available. You may not agree with this strategy, but we're not giving any money to the camp or deliver any fresh food directly without confirming with N, or else FPRM will not work for us anymore.

As the Bali Process looms . . . the Rohingya gain a small (but important) measure of press

This week I've been writing an article concerning my experiences in Aceh with the “Rohingya Issue,” as they seem to be calling it for the April 14 Bali Process. I'm going to publish the article here first, but while I am editing it for excessive venom and name-calling (which, while making me feel better, doesn’t forge any lasting positive relationships—darn it all) I would like to reprint the following two pertinent pieces, that I think are good complements, in that the first is the journalist version and the second is the activist version of the current attention paid to this group of stateless people, 198 of whom we've been trying to help in East Aceh. It appears there’s activity afoot regarding these refugees, but there are so many little political, social and economic threads to this web it’ll be a miracle if political correctness doesn’t render us paralyzed to exercise any kind of compassion at all.

From the Jakarta Post (and edited for brevity):
RI [Republic of Indonesia], Myanmar discuss democracy, refugees –17 Mar 09
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with visiting Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein here Monday to discuss the contentious issues of the Rohingya boatpeople and democracy in the junta-ruled country. Yudhoyono emphasized the need for a “practical solution” to resolve the Rohingya problem, and urged Myanmar to prove to the world that its “road map to democracy” could work by holding “fair” and “inclusive” general elections planned for next year. “Prime Minister Thein Sein said the Myanmar government is paying close attention to the [Rohingya] issue. Basically it says it will accept back the Rohingya people as long as they can prove they are indeed from Myanmar,” [emphasis added] Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal told the press after the meeting of the two leaders at the State Palace in Jakarta. He added some of the refugees may have come from Bangladesh.
Dino said both leaders had basically agreed the Rohingya issue needed to be resolved through the Bali Process, a regional mechanism aimed at combating people smuggling, trafficking and related transnational crimes, which was agreed upon by ASEAN leaders during the recent ASEAN Summit. Myanmar, however, wanted the Bali Process not to focus on the Rohingya refugee issue. Dino added Indonesia would extend the interim phase of humanitarian assistance for 400 Rohingya boatpeople stranded in Aceh province until a final solution to the problem was found. The refugees, believed to have come from Myanmar, were heading to Thailand before being stranded in Indonesia’s westernmost province. “The Indonesian government will establish bilateral cooperation with the Myanmar government, and will involve the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration to solve the problem,” Dino said. The two leaders also discussed the touchy issue of democracy in Myanmar. . . .[and] a range of other issues, including regional and international matters. . . . It is Thein Sein’s first visit to Indonesia since he assumed his present post in October 2007. This would be the time for Myanmar to prove to the world it would complete its seven-step road map to democracy. Erwida Maulia.

*****
And from the most recent post on the blog of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) http://merhrom.wordpress.com
(edited for brevity, but the blog is a MUST READ for anyone interested in the history of the Rohingya)

10 April 2009
URGENT APPEAL TO THE ASEAN AND WORLD LEADERS TO SAVE ROHINGYAS
Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) is deeply concerned over the increase of the human rights abuses against Rohingyas in Arakan State of Burma in recent months. The situation of Rohingyas in Arakan State became worst after the International media highlighted Rohingya Boat People plight since December 2008.
The military regime continued to subject Rohingya and Muslims in Arakan State to harassment, arbitrary arrest, extortion, and religious persecution. In the current development, a Rohingya girl, identified as Hamida (16) was killed and hacked into three pieces by monks in Sittwe (Akyab), the capital of Arakan State on March 28, 2009.
. . . . The Rohingya villagers did not dare to file a case in the police station against the monks for fear of retaliation from the Rakhine community. . . . In the same month, it was reported that at least 10 houses belonging to Rohingyas were set fire and burnt into ashes by Rakhine mobs around Sindi Prang village of Buthidaung Township at night time. No action was taken against any culprits by the military regime. Further to this, the military regime has deployed hundreds of thousands of military forces into Arakan State which lead to excessive human rights abuses against Rohingyas.
. . . .MERHROM is deeply concerned over the way ASEAN countries have been handling the Rohingyas issue. There were suggestions from some ASEAN countries including Malaysia and Thailand to send Rohingyas back to Burma. This would only make our situation worst as we know exactly how we will be treated by the military regime once we are forcefully deported. This is a matter of life and death. The ASEAN countries cannot take peoples’ life for granted what more when the ASEAN have its own charter now that gives priority to its peoples.
We applaud the statement by the Singapore government that they will assist Rohingya refugees by providing humanitarian assistance so that they can depart for a third country. . . . We appeal to the Malaysian government . . . to make sure that the Rohingyas in exile will not be sent back forcefully to the place where they would face persecution and prosecution. Although most ASEAN countries did not sign Refugee Convention 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, the ASEAN countries are binding to the Non-Refoulement principle.
. . . [R]eturning Rohingyas to Burma seems to be the main agenda of the ASEAN Leaders. This cannot happen as there will be repercussion on Rohingyas. The military regime had announced clearly that Rohingyas are not the citizen of Burma. They further stated that the Rohingyas are dark skinned and “as ugly as ogres.” This is disgrace to the human being as we are the creation of Almighty GOD. The military regime stated that they will only accept Rohingyas if they admit that they are Bengali and their status are still non citizen. This cannot happen as the Rohingyas are not Bengali. Rohingyas has its own language and culture which is different from Bengali.
. . . .According to Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim, a total of 144 Rohingyas in Malaysia were sent to other countries between 2003-2008. This show the lack of commitment and political will of UNHCR and third countries. Resettlement countries though UNHCR and the World Leaders are fully aware the plight of Rohingyas in Burma and why we became refugees. The main reason remains Rohingyas are Muslim. [emphais added]
. . . . We recommend that the ASEAN Leaders to visit Arakan State and to get the accurate information on situation of Rohingyas from the Rohingyas themselves. We also recommend that the ASEAN Secretariat to consult the regional and international human rights organizations who have done many research on Rohingyas in order to get accurate and non-bias information.
The visit by the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres to the Arakan State on March 7, 2009 revealed the real situation of Rohinyas though he did not say much to the media about his visit. On the basis of his observations and the discussions held, the High Commissioner came to the conclusion that UNHCR’s current level of activities in northern Rakhine State does not correspond to the actual needs and a decision was taken to upgrade the program with immediate effect.
We welcome the move by the ASEAN Leaders to discuss the Rohingyas issue at the Bali Process scheduled for 14-15 April. However we would like to emphasize that the Rohingyas issue is not just relating to Human Trafficking but there is more to it. The discussion must be broader, especially focusing on the recognition of Rohingyas as citizen as well as addressing the ways to stop gross human rights abuses against Rohingyas. The ASEAN Leaders must recognize that Rohingyas are very in need of the International protection as refugees.
We also call on the UNHCR and the Resettlement countries not to discriminate Rohingyas in the Resettlement program as we are also recognized refugees who need the same protection. At the same time we call the ASEAN and World Leaders for more comprehensive and effective intervention in Burma.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani
President Myanmar Ethnic Rohingyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM)