Updates - April 2006
How PEOPLE beat the 2 km SET-BACK Zone here
Building 3,000 houses in Aceh - JUB / UPLINK here
Peoples' Plans for Safety and Ecology in Aceh here
LUKMAN
A few snapshots from Lukman's guided tour of villages in the Udeep Beusaree Network at Bande Aceh . . .here
" Woe u gampong" means "Go back to the village" hereTsunami Networking in Bande Aceh here
The Udeep Beusaree network at work . . .here
Number 4
January 2006
ACHR in collaboration with UPC - Up Link Indonesia organised the 4th Regional Dialogue for Tsunami Survivors on 3rd to 7th of January 2006, in Banda Aceh, Indoneisa.
We invited tsunami survivors and supporters from Sri Lanka, Thailand and India to take part in discussions and anniversay activities.
We also invited people from earthquake affected communities in Pakistan. Kashmeir and India and typhoon affected communities and supporters from the Philippines. -
Below is a brief report on the event from Tom Kerr.
One year after the tsunami in Banda Aceh
In the great, treeless wastes of swamp, rubble and brackish pools where two-thirds of the city of Banda Aceh once stood, there has been little progress rebuilding since the tsunami struck. The west coast of Aceh was the worst hit of all the tsunami-hit areas in Asia. The scale of the disaster here, as well as the inaccessibility of many of the worst-hit areas, has meant that rebuilding has been slow. Most of the major rubble has been cleared, a few houses here and there are slowly being rebuilt, and the rains have brought some green back to an otherwise gray vastness, but that's about it. Until you drive out to the 8-kilometer stretch of beachfront where the 25 villages in the Udeep Beusaree ("Live together" in Acehnese) Network are located, and where the transformation from silent ruin to cheerful and chaotic rebuilding is sudden and dramatic!
These are the villages which defied the government's original decree forbidding rebuilding within 2 kilometers of the sea, marched out of the camps and back to their land, and are now energetically rebuilding their ruined houses and villages, with support from the national Uplink Network, and the German funding agency Misereor. Between January 4-8, after the government's big event, the Udeep Beusaree Network hosted its own regional tsunami dialogue. A big group of tsunami survivors from coastal villages in India, Thailand and Sri Lanka got a chance to compare notes on all the key issues of rehabilitation (such as land tenure, housing, livelihood revival, dealing with misguided government regulations, etc) with the Acehnese, as well as with some earthquake survivors from Pakistani and Indian Kashmir, and community leaders from several other parts of tsunami-hit Aceh and other parts of Indonesia who are part of the Uplink network. The more than 150 participants were feasted on spicy Acehnese delicacies, accommodated by villagers whose new houses are finished, and driven around town in high style, in becaks driven by members of the local becak drivers group, also supported by the Uplink network,
The centerpiece of the dialogue was the enormous, people-planned and people-built rebuilding program that is happening in the 25-village area - a program with involves the construction of 3,200 earthquake-resistant houses (800 already finished), full infrastructural facilities like concrete roads, storm drains, solar street-lights, water supply, and an extensive "eco-development" program which involves restoring the coastal mangroves and creating layers of built and planted safety barriers between the sea and the villages. These villages were all totally leveled by the tsunami, and most lost between half and three-quarters of their populations. The project to rebuild these villages makes a very potent demonstration of how much faster, cheaper, more appropriate and more comprehensive post-disaster rehabilitation can be when the survivors themselves - as a large collective group - are in charge, and are supported to do what they need.
During the last of the 4-day event's dialogues, the Deputy Director of the national government's Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency for Aceh-Niwas (BRR), pledged support for the Udeep Beusaree Network's work, and for the principles of people-centered, people-driven tsunami reconstruction in other parts of Aceh, with the Udeep Beusaree Network's reconstruction as a model for other areas. The joint declaration on recovery is here. For more information on the project in Aceh, please contact Wardah at upc@centrin.net.id or check out the special tsunami issue of the ACHR newsletter on the ACHR website
To the right:
Grgeor Meerpohl is honoured by the Indonesians before his retirement from German funders MISEREOR.
ACHR NEWSLETTER - AVAILABLE NOW
Stories from ACEH
A national network of urban poor groups and their supporters bring fresh ideas into Banda Aceh's tsunami rehabilitation processBarracks: Why tsunami survivors are so keen to get out of the government's relief housing . . .
Bahasa Aceh language lesson number one
"Woe u gampong" means "Go back to the village"An outside intervention helps support and organize this going back, and sets off a people-driven rehabilitation direction in the process
Forming a large-scale survivors network in the worst-hit part of Asia's worst hit country. . .
The Udeep Beusaree network at work . . ."It's best to keep busy. If we sit and think too much, we'll go crazy" (Lukman)
1. Managing the onslaught of relief aid :
2. Building temporary houses and meunasahs :
3. Planting trees and restoring coastal mangrove forests :
4. Developing permanent housing and community layout plans :
5. "Digitizing" the complex land history of 25 erased villagesFive months after the tsunami, signs of life return to these battered villages . .
A few snapshots from Lukman's guided tour of villages in the Udeep Beusaree Network . . Network headquarters It was a beautiful city: Everything gone : First Udeep Beusaree houses;: People's stories :
Coffee in the wilderness : Pride of place : Prayers in the meunasah Cash-for-work Spirits with good reasons to be unquiet
DOWNLOAD PDF Version from HERE
THE GOVERNMENT'S FIRST PLAN
Clear all settlements within a 2-km "safety zone" and relocate everyone to new towns 20 - 30 kms inland . . .THE PEOPLE'S ALTERNATIVE :
Use ecological means to create safety in the villages where they are now . . .TEAMWORK : How some strategic inputs from outside friends helped convince the government to ditch the 2-km safety zone and allow villages in Banda Aceh to rebuild in situ
HOW THE ECO VILLAGE CONCEPT WORKS :
Juggling the dissonant issues of private land ownership and collective village planning . . .3,000 permanent houses in 25 villages :
No easy matter constructing dwellings on a scale this big in a place where just about all systems are down . . .Designing these houses to survive earthquakes :
Piggy-backing on the disaster experiences of some friends in Gujarat, India
ALL COUNTRIES IN ASIA
Order a copy from <achr@loxinfo.co.th>
The articles below are available for download at the
Forced Migration Review website HERE
http://www.fmreview.org/text/FMR/Tsunami/contents.htmAccessing IDPs in post-tsunami Aceh
by Claudia HudspethIDPs confined to barracks in Aceh
by LukmanAge Ensuring minimum standards in reproductive health care
by Sandra KrauseCoordination in Indonesia: an NGO viewpoint
by Carsten VölzPost-tsunami protection concerns in Aceh
by FMR EditorsPowerless victims or strong survivors?
by Ingvild Solvang
June 27 Brief Update
One reason for the lack of updates from our friends in Aceh has been the intensity of the work and action being undertaken at this time. Our friends from UPC and Up-Link are working with up to 20 communities in and around Banda Aceh. At the local level they are supporting groups who wish to return to their communities to re-build their housing.
The process includes communities sitting together building maps of their former communities - see picture right .
Many have started to build permanent housing using the slab base of their former houses and trying to incorporate former bathroom toilet fixtures which managed to survive the tsunami.
The network has been able to change government views on the buffer zone set back and is also advocating the concept of "escape hills" whereby all residents will be close by man-made hills where they can run to in the case of another tsunami. The areas set aside for "escape hills" can be used by communities for various purposes.
Community Mapping
Starting again
Aceh survivors at the Tsunami Survivors Dialogue
in Sri Lanka present a
People's Perspective from Aceh
"We are here to share the experience and also to mention what we have been doing since the first day of the tsunami on 26 th December.
The tsunami started with an earthquake, and 15 minutes later the tsunami came to Aceh. 1,000 villages and urban communities were affected, 80% of the capital, Bandah Aceh was completely destroyed, and all the cities and areas on the west coast were also badly damaged. The official number of registered deaths was 260,000, but the estimate is between 260,000 to 400,000 people dead and missing. In the coastal areas, in the fisher folk communities, the percentage of survivors was only 10% of the original population , and the largest number of casualties were women and children.
The Government.... And now the government gives survivors 5,000 rupias which is about 50 cents US per day, just for them to sit and be idle in the barracks / camps.
The People .... But what many people did is - they went back to their original villages.
They started to clean the rubble, find the dead bodies, buried them.
They allocated burial ground for the village.
So they tried to find their relatives, neighbours and others.
They were so active. - it helped to counter the trauma.
The policy of the government is for the coastal communities - for all the fisher folk communities to shift back, to move 2km away from the sea. In Sri Lanka it's 100 meters, in Thailand it's 500m, India 500m, in Aceh it's 2km - 2,000m, yes.
So in addition to going back to the villages, starting cleaning, collecting plants, recycling wood and things, the leaders of the fisher folk communities recently organized a meeting, at provincial level, and they invited the Minister of Sea Affairs, and they made a statement that for the fishermen: they don't want to relocate, they want to come back, to return to their villages, and it's a matter of life and death for them, they want to stay.
So it's a very strong statement, and it's public. So that's the first move that they made.
In terms of the barracks, the government barracks, the government build one row of barracks with 20 doors, one door is for 5 people, covering an area 3x4 square meters. They want the people to go to the barracks for 1- 2 years. And as you know Aceh is still under civil marshal law, it's under the control of the military, and that is what the military wants, the army wants, that the people are all in the barracks, being controlled, and all the food supply and everything are under control of the army.
Also: one additional piece of information about the barracks is that for the 20 doors it cost 200 million rupiahs which is, I don't know, but there is corruption there because from the donors to the government it's 200 million rupiahs, from the government to the contractors it's only 120 million rupiahs, so 80 million are being pocketed, being embezzled by the government people. And it's made open in the media, you know that there is this corruption.
But the majority of the people refuse to go to barracks and instead they go back to their villages. The 15 th February was the formal date when all the people should go should go to the government barracks. But the majority refused, and then his ( Raja's see photo right) community on the 26 th February, made a symbolic act: firstly, they folded their tents, and together as a group, they returned to their village. As it's far away they couldn't march, but they took a truck. They went by trucks back to their original villages, and this was widely covered by the media. So this is like a symbolic protest and a symbolic act to say we don't want the barracks.
Also ....all international organizations, agencies, national, international, are there, you name it, it's hundreds of them. For instance, Oxfam, they have 70 expat.s in Aceh, very big. And also all of them, they come with money, and many are very aggressive in giving the money to the communities. So this grassroots network - there is a network of 3 sub-districts - they formed a committee, and they made a statement to all the aid organizations and donors to say that we want the grassroots to coordinate aid with the donors so that everybody can get what they need, so not one village does not get a lot, and some other village don't get any. So they want to coordinate all this, and they made a statement a week ago. Again the media are invited, widely covered, Martin ( from MISEREOR Germany ) was there, so it's very public.
At present it seems though it is not definite, that the government agrees not to apply the 2km zone anymore. So now the policy is that people can come back, they can return to their villages and if they want to stay, they want to build their houses there, they're allowed to.
And the 2nd policy that is also changed (it seems at present ) is that the government before, had planned for zoning. So there is the coastal zone which is free, and then the green belt zone and fish ponds and stuff like that. Now there is no national policies on zoning. But planning has to begin with micro planning, and from there it's done by the villagers in consultation, the government will consul them, local government will consul the villages and the communities. Then they will start from there.
Miltary Conflict. As you know, Aceh is the worst hit and also the most difficult area because of the military conflict. Now, what the tsunami means to the people, especially post-tsunami ... the people hope that this is the opportunity for reconciliation, and for peace, because before there were very serious military or army atrocities, killing, rape, all kinds of violence in the area. With this disaster, the people hope that this will be real opportunity for peace and reconciliation for them.
But for the military, it's different. They are very nervous now about Aceh is becoming an open area, with so many international organizations and people there. They even say Aceh now is like Kuta, like Bali, you know, very touristic, so many "tourists" are there. What they meant by that is that they don't want this area to be open, they want to maintain their grab of the area, they want to maintain Aceh as a close area. But then for the international society, the aid and funds for Aceh is really unprecedented, thousands of millions of dollars are ready for Aceh. If it's not managed wisely, this will be like the second tsunami for the people. But all the international individuals, organizations, whatever, they are very ready for help. But the military and government wants to manage and control the funds - each of their own purpose now.
Governemnt Plans. The government is now torn between so many interests, They are pressured by the military, but they are also pressured by the private sector. But as you know the private sector and the government are actually the same entity with 2 faces. Because many who own the companies are government people, you know. So this is the situation. But the international money is waiting for a policy that is really for the people, pro-people. So now they don't disburse the money yet, they're waiting for the government policy.
So this is an opportunity actually, a space for us to maneuver so that the government policy can be for the people.
Our strategy ... we work basically 2 levels. We try to create models on the ground with the people as we have presented before.
And then secondly on the national level we have our allies, Andy is there, he's a key actor in presenting counter-policy. So the government policy is relocation, and our counter-policy is how to make people stay in their original places - but safe.
Under current policy ... All the people should move 2km away, and they're going to build 3 new modern futuristic cities to relocate the people. This means projects and money for the private sector, and the government also. And then, within this, what we do is we have our people within the government team because the government set up a coordinating party which is the National Development Planning Board. This one is ministry-level. And another strategy is that we work very closely with the media, so all the activities on the ground, in the communities are often coordinated with media. "
Amongst the survivors from Aceh in Sri Lanka were
Mr. M. Yasin, Community Leader,
Udeep Beusaree, Aceh
Yasin lost 50 relatives - brothers sisters, nieces, nephews - from his mother’s side of the family. He is a fisherman on Aceh’s west coast. In Yoshin’s village before the tsunami there were 2,000 people, only 200 remain alive.
Mr. Raja Hidayat, Community Leader, Udeep Beusaree, Aceh
Raja lost his family - wife and children, mother and father. He is the Village Head and a fisherman. There were also around 2,00 people living in his village., There are now 215. Only 25 women survived.
Acehenese on the Galle Rd Sri Lanka
Ali presents Aceh action plan in Sri Lanka
Fisherfolk from Aceh meet with Sri Lankans
INDONESIA-
The first 2 months HERE
A letter from the field Feb 15
Week 5
Fisher Folk Vs Government
Villagers Forced from Camps
Aceh and the Land Mafia
Aceh as an Investment FieldWeek 4
Miltary Violence in Camps
Local groups plan to go back
Week 3
The Situation in Indonesia
Plans of Action for the futrue
Notes on ACHR visit to Aceh
Why the new Camps are not the best option
Indian Collaboration Plans
Week 2
Earlier News from Indonesia
Indonesian team proposed the following action plan for April - May - June
On Community Organisation
Building of 300 interim shelters in 14 villages by March 15th;
o Building of 4 jetties to allow the fishing industry to be re-established;
o Setting up alternative and modern health facilities;
o Begin micro/village level as well as district level planning with community involvement;
o The communities will undertake infrastructure planning;
o Community based housing design; and
o Establish village information centres to allow for a constant exchange of information
Advocacy-
o Work toward reconciliation and peace;
o Counter concepts will be developed and forwarded to authorities - with the assistance of technical teams;
o To have international and national organisations pressure the government to reduce the role of the military in the rebuilding process;
o Increase land tenure security.
Networking
o Conduct exchange visits with communities in Gujrat and Thailand to learn from each other; and
o The people’s groups which have been established in 3 districts will be extended into another 14 sub-districts.
On Monday 11 April to mark 100 days after the tsunami: In many fishing villages - Aceh people will plant one tree per family ( thousands of trees ) in a symbolic gesture to the environment - organised by UPC and the grassroots network. The Minister of Environment has been invited to attend the large event in Bande Aceh. The groups will will also set up a model house designed by community and displays of community disigned villages.