Sea change in Aceh
HUNDREDS OF FOREIGN relief workers, it turns out, provided more than medical care and other emergency services to Aceh province in Indonesia following the tsunami a year ago.
Their presence is credited by many with encouraging peace between the Acehnese separatist movement and the government. While the tsunami did not have this effect in strife-torn Sri Lanka, in Aceh the conflict became harder to sustain before the eyes of the world.
If the peace agreement reached in recent months between the separatists and the government turns out to be enduring, it will aid in the recovery of the northwest corner of Sumatra.
With an estimated 67,000 Acehnese still living in tents, reconstruction has a long way to go. It has been slowed by confusion over deeds and land rights and by the fact that miles of formerly built-up coastland of the province were simply washed away. Officials are also concerned that land immediately inland might not be safe to build on.
By the time the tsunami hit, the conflict had gone on for three decades and taken 15,000 lives.
The Acehnese separatists viewed the Indonesian government much as they had viewed Indonesia's Dutch colonialists and Japanese invaders: as outsiders seeking to exploit their province's natural resources. Aceh has substantial oil and gas reserves.
Fatigue over the unresolved conflict was one factor in moving the separatists, in particular, to peace talks in Helsinki even before the tsunami struck.
But Suffolk University professor Judy Dushku, who recently visited Aceh as part of a human rights assessment mission organized by the nonprofit organization Global Exchange, said she came to the conclusion that the peace agreement would not have been reached without the post-tsunami influx of foreign relief workers.
In the agreement, the separatists have turned in weapons and demilitarized, seeking to become a political force.
Now it will be up to the Indonesian legislature to permit former combatants to compete in provincial elections. Without such legislation and without the absorption of the separatist rebels into the province's work force, the accord might not prove longlasting. Dushku said the role of the Aceh Monitoring Mission of foreign observers will be crucial.
Other natural disasters, such as the 1999 earthquakes in Turkey and Greece, have also served to reduce enmity between longtime antagonists.
The challenge in Indonesia will be to ensure that this unexpected benefit of the disaster is sturdier than all the buildings swamped by the waves.
