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.

JMD's Field Officer heads back to Aceh Timur

After several days of administrative and office work with JMD's Banda Aceh staff, Field Officer Robert is back in Aceh Timur for three weeks of providing intensive training, materials delivery, storage barn-building, fording rivers and schlepping organic cocoa growth hormone (that we are trying to find the recipe for so we can make it ourselves).

He’ll be busy from dawn till midnight, but as the photos he sends us show, he loves his work and is happy as a mollusk when he’s in the field.





Robert used to be a shy photographer but over the past year he has developed an amazing eye and documents all the progress in Aceh Timur better than anyone else could—you can tell by the expression on the faces of the farmers and the kids—they all like and trust him.

This training will be really important because JMD is trying to get this group of women interested in being a semi-formal association, and develop rules and recordkeeping and agreements regarding how cocoa will be graded, stored, and sold.  This is an enormous undertaking in Aceh, for a number of reasons. 

Rural communities like those in Aceh Timur have extremely low literacy rates due to the internal conflict having disrupted education for 30 years.  Even though JMD now assists the Dinas (department) of education help people get their high school equivalency diplomas, graduation rates for women remain very low.  And recordkeeping, measuring, and business management skills are crucial when you’re starting any business. 

The other roadblock is the international donor community’s reliance on the co-operative system in developing countries. The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) “has worked over the last 117 years to expand the presence and awareness of cooperatives around the world. . . .  The seven ICA Cooperative Principles [including democracy, autonomy, equal access, voluntary and open membership, group decision making and planning, community/local government involvement] have provided one of the main methods for ensuring consistency in the movement, and have had wide uptake throughout the world.”

Unfortunately, co-operatives in Aceh do not necessarily adhere to these seven principles.  In remote and extremely poor areas, members do not have the time or resources needed to be involved in anything other than their farm labor, and so the business of administering the co-op, making decisions, etc. usually is given to a non-farmer third party.

Most donors, private business foundations or certifying bodies, however, will not work with farmer groups unless they are part of a co-operative.  One of the reasons is economy of scale—a co-operative can be comprised of 1,000-2,000 members, and this makes financial or technical assistance viable for a donor.  The problem is that very few farmers like or trust the co-operative model.  They will hold their noses and join if they have to (and many do), but few co-operatives in Aceh are farmer-run and farmer-centric.  They operate like small, for-profit finance institutions that retain control over capital, seeds, training, equipment, and the market.  Cocoa farming, like coffee farming, is a seasonal enterprise, and farmers often need capital to tide them over until the next harvest, or else they need seeds or machinery that at certain times of the year they need to take out loans to purchase.  They also need a guaranteed buyer. Co-operatives provide all these services but in a manner that keeps the small or mid-size farmer beholden to the co-op.  Farmer interest and the future of the commodity are of interest to a co-op only insofar as it makes the administration a profit.  JMD has had experiences with co-ops who threatened to withdraw support and “prohibit” their farmers from being part of our project, since it teaches farmers how to get results that previously could only be attained through a co-op.  Knowledge is power.  Since co-ops are not farmer-centric, any skills or knowledge gained by farmers would only serve to weaken the hold that the co-ops had on their only resource: poor farmers needing money, training and equipment.

So, what’s a local NGO to do if it wants a group of women cocoa farmers to succeed?  Go very slowly, for starters.  These women so far have developed their own rules, collected their own dues, and make decisions as a group based on how they see their production and their profits increasing in the future.  This is a very delicate business.  JMD wants this group to be viable, vibrant, and really big, and it is hoping that the women will hang in there long enough to see that happen, which will be well after JMD has stopped providing material and technical support.

There has got to be an alternative to the co-operative model that can exist in rural and remote areas that is helpful to farmers, attractive to donors and certifying bodies like Rainforest Alliance, and comfortable enough for companies like Mars and Nestle to invest in.  We just haven’t quite figured it out yet.  But until then, Aceh recognizes a sort of quasi-co-operative, called an Association, and it’s our aim to strengthen the women cocoa farmers’ association in Aceh Timur as much as we can.  Or else make al the co-ops in Aceh honest and upstanding members of the sustainable agriculture community.

I kill myself sometimes.

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)