Indonesia and reconstruction

It was never likely to take very long. With the world's attention passing on to other matters (Prince Harry's fancy dress outfit is the most important story of the day if that bastion of public service, the BBC, is to be believed - who says the big media organisations can't dictate the headlines?) the Indonesian government is getting rather uptight about the presence of foriegn soldiers and aid workers in Aceh, a province in which the government has been fighting a civil war against seperatists for 30 years, and in which they don't want people intefering (until Boxing day, journalists weren't allowed in). So, Associated Press reports, "Indonesia on Thursday ordered foreign aid workers in tsunami-devastated Aceh province to have military escorts in areas facing violence by insurgents, even as the vice president welcomed a cease-fire offer by the rebels." Furthermore, the FT tells us, they will all have to leave by March 21st, or ideally even sooner: '“Three months are enough. In fact, the sooner the better,” Mr Kalla told the state-run Antara news agency.' ("Foreign troops given deadline to leave Aceh", By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta and David Ibison in Banda Aceh, FT, 13/01/05. Online here). For those of you who have only been paying attention for the last couple of weeks, Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was a senior general under Suharto's genocidal regime.
No, it doesn't matter how much money you give to Oxfam (not that people shouldn't, more is still needed, also for other things which claim thousands of lives every day, although less dramatically), life in Indonesia, and especially Aceh, is not about to suddenly become very pretty.

Finally some debate on the left about how to respond to current events in Iraq. Stay tuned, folks, I'm sure to be unable to resist sticking my oar in here...