NYT,pg1: In Tsunami Area, Relief Slow in Coming(what happened to the $$$?)

In Tsunami Area, Relief Is Very Slow in Coming
By SETH MYDANS
International Herald Tribune

Published: April 6, 2005


....There is little sign in Aceh of the billions of dollars in donations from governments, aid organizations, civic groups and individual people who reached out to help from around the world....

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With recovery plans being formulated in the capital, Jakarta, civic groups here fear that local needs and conditions are not being heard.

As recovery inches forward, these groups say, it will encounter conflicts over inheritance and land ownership, bureaucratic inefficiency, competition among aid groups and among government departments and, with so much money flooding in, the possibility of vast corruption.

Several aid officials said they were concerned that the blueprint for reconstruction was being drawn up in the context of the martial law restrictions already in place in Aceh.

Among other things, martial law could provide a reason for expelling most foreign aid groups from Aceh, said Mr. Rufiradi, the lawyer, meaning there would be few outsiders to monitor the use of recovery funds. Torn by unending war and repression, battered by a natural disaster that may not yet be over, paralyzed by a reconstruction effort that just cannot seem to get started, Aceh today is not a place of hope.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/international/asia/06aceh.html?adxnnl=0&oref=login&adxnnlx=1112796406-jMPurjnCWTUJorOaP7d6Ag&pagewanted=all&position=