News Index

The Jakarta Post, 2005-12-15
ADB grants $6.6m for Aceh
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Indonesian government signed three grant agreements on Wednesday totaling US$6 million to help improve livelihoods, rehabilitate natural resources and provide earthquake-resistant housing in the tsunami-affected province of Aceh. ADB Country Director Edgar A. Cua explained that the grants for Aceh would consist of a $2.5 million grant to help develop sustainable livelihoods in 20 coastal communities in Aceh Besar and Aceh Utara regencies by providing fishing boats and post-harvest facilities for small-scale fishermen and farmers.

Tomi Soetjipto - Reuters, 2005-12-15
Indonesia agency defends pace of tsunami rebuilding
The head of reconstruction in Indonesia's tsunami-devastated Aceh province defended the pace of home rebuilding for survivors on Thursday, saying it was exceeding the country's national capacity. Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who heads the government's BRR agency, told a news conference that 16,500 homes had been built by mid-December while 15,000 more were under construction. "If you compare with the capacity of our own state (housing agency), per year they build 16,000 houses. What we have is more than that. I don't agree with what you are saying that it is slow," Kuntoro said in response to a question about the pace of home rebuilding.

Fayen Wong - Reuters, 2005-12-14
World Bank says rebuilding in Aceh taking too long
A World Bank official said on Wednesday that reconstruction work in the Indonesian province of Aceh had taken too long, with 180,000 people still living in temporary homes a year after a massive tsunami hit the region. Andrew Steer, head of the World Bank in Jakarta, urged Indonesia's government to treat the rebuilding of Aceh as a top priority, as many survivors were still living in squalid camps and were frustrated by the slow pace of reconstruction. "We are not happy at all with the progress in Aceh. There are still over 60,000 people living in tents today, that's clearly unacceptable a year after the tsunami," Steer told reporters in Singapore. Another 120,000 live in barracks or with host families.

Paul Wiseman - USA TODAY, 2005-12-14
On tsunami shores, a foundering recovery
A few weeks ago, the exasperated residents of this fishing village put up a billboard with a message for tsunami relief workers: "We don't need boats. We need houses." The billboard sums up the state of reconstruction a year after a tsunami roared through the Aceh region on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leaving 133,000 Indonesians dead, 25,000 missing and more than 500,000 homeless. In the aftermath of the disaster, foreign aid groups and Indonesian government agencies built too many boats, too quickly, but they didn't build enough housing.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2005-12-14
UNHCR focuses post-tsunami efforts on Aceh's west coast
After a massive three-month emergency relief operation in Indonesia's Aceh province in the immediate aftermath of the 26 December 2004 tsunami, the UN refugee agency returned to the province in June 2005 to help out with the reconstruction effort by rebuilding communities along Aceh's badly damaged west coast. In this second rebuilding phase, UNHCR is focusing its efforts along a 200km stretch of Aceh's west coast where the priority is integrated, holistic community rebuilding involving community members in the reconstruction.

World Vision - Relief Web, 2005-12-06
Harvest festival marks community's renewed economic strength in Aceh
A recent ceremony has marked the first harvest for farmers in one village since the tsunami struck. After three months of toiling in the field, 39 hectares of land at Lambaroh village in Lamno, Aceh Jaya district, is finally ready for harvesting. An important moment for the community, as the ceremony is a sign they are on their way to economic recovery.

The Jakarta Post, 2005-12-02
Germany provides help to IPB sttudents
Germany has awarded scholarships to 65 students from tsunami-hit Aceh and North Sumatra studying at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), the German Embassy in Jakarta said. In a simple ceremony on Wednesday held on the IPB campus in Bogor, Sur Place scholarships -- which were funded by the Donors' Association for the Promotion of Science and Humanities in Germany -- were given to 65 needy postgraduate students.

Apriadi Gunawan - The Jakarta Post, 2005-11-28
Nias reconstruction work criticized
The Nias regency administration lashed out at the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency on Tuesday for the lack of progress in rebuilding the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged island. The administration said only 30 out of the 8,000 new houses planned for tsunami and quake survivors on the island had been completed.

Bantarto Bandoro - The Jakarta Post, 2005-11-22
Cooperation needed to overcome disasters
The global response to the Indian Ocean tsunami prompted the region and the world to consider its implications for regional and global relations. The idea that ASEAN should have its own regional center for humanitarian assistance (The Jakarta Post, Oct. 27) should be seen against such a background. It is a clear reflection of the need for a much more permanent and effective mechanism to manage disasters. The center would hopefully not only improve the capacity of ASEAN members countries to provide quick-response humanitarian assistance in case of natural disaster, but also change their mind-set as to how they should manage their relations, particularly when faced with disaster.

Saiful Mahdi - The Jakarta Post, 2005-11-09
Is anybody really in charge in Aceh?
Preliminary survey results by Unifem (United Nations Development Fund for Women) involving around 6,500 Acehnese women, survivors of the tsunami, indicated that almost 70 percent of them make decisions on their own. Important decisions the survivors make range from simple daily choices, to livelihood options, to whether they want to return to their original villages, relocate, or stay in temporary shelters.