Tsunami relief groups face Indonesian crackdown

By Shawn Donnan
Published: March 26 2005 02:00 | Last updated: March 26 2005 02:00

Three months after the Asian tsunami disaster left Indonesia's Aceh province in ruins, Jakarta has begun a crackdown on foreign aid groups operating there.

The UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, this week said it was pulling its staff out of Aceh amid government pressure to do so, leaving the fate of $33m (€25.5m, £17.6m) raised to fund reconstruction projects up in the air. The government also has begun a review of aid groups operating in the province, the area hit hardest by the December 26 tsunami, giving them up to 60 days to justify their presence there.

Indonesia has for years restricted access to Aceh because of a long-running separatist conflict there that has given rise to allegations of human rights abuses against the Indonesian military and rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). <snip>

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