December 29, 2004

The government has been keeping foreign aid workers out of Aceh, because of the separatist rebel movement. Aceh has over 50,000 police and army troops battling 3-5,000 armed rebels. Most of these rebels are up in the hills, so they were spared most of the damage along the coast. Some 400 soldiers and police were killed, however, along with over 20,000 civilians.  The fighting with the separatists has killed about 3,000 people in the last two years, so the earthquake is a much larger disaster. In Aceh, the police are allowing known rebels to come out of hiding to attend to family members. It's not known how long this informal truce will last. The government has promised a major relief effort. But people are skeptical, as military commanders in Aceh are under investigation for stealing nearly half the money given them for operations against rebels.