Humanitarian disaster facing Aceh, human rights group says

[dArKeR]

The United Nations must pressure Indonesia into allowing relief aid into its war-torn province of Aceh in order to prevent a full-blown humanitarian crisis in the region of 4.1 million people, Human Rights Watch warned.

"The Indonesian government should not be blocking humanitarian assistance at this critical juncture," Brad Adams, one of the group's executive directors, said in a statement received yesterday.

An Indonesian spokesman reacted angrily to the accusations, saying that the government was the most competent to monitor human rights violations in Aceh.

"Human Rights Watch should restrain from having this assumption of knowing it all, as if their absence (in Aceh) means we cannot be kept honest," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Asia/2003/09/20/1064024503.htm

[Resistance]

1. HRW statement

http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/aceh091803.htm

(New York, September 19, 2003) - Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri should allow international humanitarian agencies full and unfettered access to Aceh, where recent military offensives may have sparked a humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.


The Human Rights Watch briefing paper, Aceh Under Martial Law: Unnecessary and Dangerous Restrictions on International Humanitarian Access, documents recent bureaucratic restrictions that bar international humanitarian agencies from providing direct aid to the province.

"The Indonesian government should not be blocking humanitarian assistance at this critical juncture," said Adams. "The people of Aceh could be facing a real disaster behind closed doors. It is time for Indonesia to open up the province to outside observers and to let humanitarian agencies do their work."

The ongoing offensive in Aceh is Indonesia's largest military campaign since it invaded East Timor in 1975. The operation in Aceh involves an estimated 30,000 troops. Opposing them are an estimated five thousand armed members of GAM.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Oh boy...

An Indonesian spokesman reacted angrily to the accusations, saying that the government was the most competent to monitor human rights violations in Aceh.


And they're also the most competent at sending in the troops who commit the human rights violations in the first place. Geez, why don't those whiny human rights groups just keep out of their way and allow them to monitor human rights like the true experts they are????


Violet...