Guests: Prof. William Liddle, Prof. Jeffrey Winters

Jim Lehrer: Next, politics and aid in the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh. We start with a report from James Mates of Independent Television News.

Paul Toohey – The stragglers below wave plastic flags and shirts as the US Navy Seahawk helicopter settles on an island of broken tarmac in the no-longer-existent village of Panga, some 100km south of Banda Aceh. It is the briefest of touchdowns.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Alwi Shihab couldn't help himself. Barely two hours after a US Seahawk helicopter crashed near Banda Aceh's airport, the Indonesian minister responsible for the relief effort explained what had gone wrong to a news conference of mainly foreign journalists.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Riyadi Suparno, Banda Aceh – The government and the military are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding the presence of more than 2,000 foreign nationals in disaster-hit Aceh.

Matthew Moore in Banda Aceh and Karuni Rompies – Rebels in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken province of Aceh have threatened to abandon their two-week-old cease-fire unless the Indonesian military agrees to stop action against them.

Jane Perlez, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian military on Tuesday ordered restrictions on foreign aid workers, limiting their free operation to the two main cities hit by the tsunami in an effort to assert control over international relief operations here.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday (10/1/05) met with the ambassadors of Britain, Japan, Libya, Singapore, Sweden and the US to hear their views on how to resolve the separatist conflict in Aceh, said a senior government official.

INFID Statement on the meeting of the Paris Club, on January 12, 2005 and the Consultative Group on Indonesia on January 19 and 20, 2005

Banda Aceh – Leaders in the international tsunami aid effort expressed concern about how curbs on the movement of workers and a deadline for foreign troops to leave would affect relief in Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province.

Andrew Quinn, Jakarta – As cash donations pour in from around the world for the victims of Asia's tsunami, fears are rife that corruption will divert big chunks of the aid money before it reaches the disaster zone.

On December 25, 2004, one day before Aceh was devastated by an earthquake-driven tsunami, the Indonesian military (TNI) announced that it had just killed eighteen guerrillas in the province.[1] Such news had long since become routine. A week earlier, the TNI killed five.[2] TNI chief Gen.

The Indonesian military imposed sweeping restrictions on foreign aid workers in tsunami-hit Aceh, saying the move was needed to curtail a growing threat from separatist rebels.

Military chief General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters the armed forces would accompany and monitor aid groups on all missions outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

The Indonesian government said that separatist rebels were not infiltrating refugee camps in tsunami-hit Aceh province and were not responsible for a shooting near the main UN compound, contradicting assertions a day earlier by the country's military and police.

As the Aceh aid effort gathers pace, reports have been emerging from the battered province that Indonesian troops sent in to help distribute aid have instead been selling the supplies to the hungry and desperate victims of the tsunami. The Indonesian military meanwhile has claimed Acehnese rebels have themselves been blocking access to clean water supplies.

Shawn Donnan in Jakarta and David Ibison in Banda Aceh – The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono threw open the doors to Aceh, the scene of a long-running separatist insurgency, in the days following the December 26 tsunamis that left more than 100,000 dead in the province, ending a de-facto ban on foreign aid groups working there.

Concerns remained that an unknown number of tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province have not received any aid, two weeks after the disaster that killed more than 104,000 people there.

The Australian government should be more vocal about calling an end to hostilities in Aceh, the United Nations Association said.

Thousands of Acehnese have died in three decades of fighting against Indonesian troops over independence for the region, which is now coming to grips with the loss of more than 100,000 people in the Boxing Day tsunami.

Jane Perlez, Lamlhom – In the shade of a stand of coconut trees, Basri Ahmad buried his 19-year-old son on Friday, a victim not of earthquake or ocean waves but of the civil conflict that sowed death in Aceh long before the recent devastation.

Jonathan Head, Banda Aceh – Indonesian soldiers say their tsunami relief work in the province of Aceh is being hindered by clashes with the rebels who have been fighting a bitter separatist conflict. The rebels in turn accuse the military of using the disaster as a pretext for a renewed offensive.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has labelled the tsunami calamity "the greatest challenge of my presidency so far".

For a man who has been in office less than three months, it was an odd remark but also a sign of how difficult it has been for Indonesia's Government to understand and respond to what has happened in Aceh.

Dan Eaton and Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh – Drive south from this devastated city and the road just stops.

Ahead lies territory whose features have been erased – just like the hopes and plans of hundreds of thousands of its residents left homeless by the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Peter S. Goodman, Meulaboh – From the indentation her head left in the mud, the girl seemed about 5 years old. The soldiers recalled they found her face down under a collapsed brick wall.

Indonesia's military campaign to crush a long-running rebellion in Aceh and restrictions imposed on aid groups in the remote province are hindering disaster relief efforts, human rights groups warned.

Martin Chulov – Australian journalists who witnessed a confrontation between Indonesian soldiers and alleged separatists in tsunami-ravaged Sumatra yesterday were ordered to leave the area and warned not to report on the incident.

Fadli, Batam – Dozens of survivors of the quake-triggered tsunami have found they cannot even enter Batam to find their relatives. Authorities denied them entry because they failed to meet requirements as stated in the city's regulations.

A regional human rights group has accused the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) of hampering the distribution of aid to tsunami survivors in Aceh province.

The Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development made the accusation in the following press release:

Forum-Asia, an Asian-based human rights watchdog, expressed concern on Wednesday over the alleged abuse of aid for tsunami victims in Aceh as some officials were selling the food aid to survivors.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Aid organizations working for humanitarian relief programs in tsunami-hit Aceh complained on Wednesday that instead of providing them with assistance, the government had hampered effective efforts to mitigate the effects of the calamity.

Jane Perlez, Banda Aceh – In the makeshift recovery room, Dr. Paul Shumack crouched on the floor cradling the head of Novi, 35, who had already lost her husband and only child to the tsunami, and now her right leg.

The doctor had just amputated it to the buttock. Short of supplies, the surgical team had been forced to use what was described as a handsaw.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Radical Islamic groups best known for smashing bars and violent support of the jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have sent large contingents of their members to Aceh with funding provided by the Indonesian Government.

Sidney Blumenthal – Two days after the tsunami struck, President Bush, who had made no public statement, was vacationing at his ranch in Texas, and a junior spokesman was trotted out. The offer of US aid was $15m – $2m less than the star pitcher of the Boston Red Sox was paid that year.

Bangkok – The Indonesian military is hampering efforts to distribute aid to tsunami survivors in Aceh province, denying assistance and even abusing some survivors, a regional human rights organization is alleging.

The real reason why the imperialist government does not pay attention to the human rights violations in Aceh is due to the importance of international capital, such as Exxon-Mobil International, which has a symbiotic relationship with military control and civil bureaucrats in Aceh.

Medan – A load of relief supplies slung under a US military helicopter fell and slammed into a car parked at a shopping mall in the Indonesian city of Medan early Wednesday, local officials said. Provincial government spokesman Eddy Sofyan said there were no injuries but that one car parked at the mall was damaged.

Emergency assistance to Asian communities affected by the tsunami disaster will be needed for at least six months, the United Nations has said, warning that a full recovery would take far longer.

Amid increasing concerns the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) is using the tsunami disaster in Aceh to crack down on the province's separatist movement, the military has claimed that troops are needed to stop rebels from "infiltrating" refugee camps, stealing aid and carrying out attacks.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – They call them refugee camps, but the scores of little plastic tent settlements that have sprung up across Aceh are unlike the refugee camps that have long been part of this war-torn province.

Edward Cody, Banda Aceh – Aceh's highly influential Islamic clerics have explained the giant wave that devastated this overwhelmingly Muslim region as a warning to the faithful that they must more strictly observe their religion, including a ban on Muslims killing Muslims.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is continuing to wage war with separatist rebels in the hills of Aceh as world leaders put the finishing touches to a multi-billion-dollar aid and investment package for the devastated province.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives leaders decided on Tuesday to form a team of 20 legislators with the task of supervising the distribution of humanitarian aid to tsunami-hit areas in Aceh and North Sumatra in order to help prevent misuse of funds.

Agencies – Indonesian authorities posted police guards at refugee camps today to protect children orphaned by last week's tsunamis from child traffickers.

Jakarta – As relief officials work to help the thousands of people made homeless from last month's tsunami, another concern is quietly making the rounds of donor meetings: the threat of corruption.

Disillusioned with the government's stuttering relief efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh, one of Indonesia's most popular conservative Muslim political parties organized initial relief efforts here, and come election time, analysts say, it will reap the rewards of its swift response.

Jakarta – At least 1,000 teachers have been reported missing in Aceh and over 50 percent of school buildings devastated by last week's tsunamis, an official said on Wednesday.

Military control of the massive tsunami relief operation in Aceh, and its monopoly of aid distribution, is hampering the delivery of vital supplies to those most in need according to information received by TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

Anthony Reid – The magnitude of the devastation visited on Aceh on December 26 is almost beyond comprehension. No natural disaster in Indonesian, or indeed South-east Asian, history comes close to the mounting toll of death and destruction of this undersea earthquake and tsunamis.

The disaster that happened in Aceh and North Sumatra and in other countries has inflicted a deep wound. The earthquake and Tsunami in Aceh, estimated to cause an enormous loss of lives, had killed more than 90,000 people.

George Monbiot – There has never been a moment like it on British television. The Vicar of Dibley, one of our gentler sitcoms, was bouncing along with its usual bonhomie on New Year's Day when it suddenly hit us with a scene from another world. Two young African children were sobbing and trying to comfort each other after their mother had died of Aids.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok – While volunteers, relief workers and families are busy collecting and searching for bodies in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh province, Indonesian soldiers are continuing their offensive against separatist rebels, hindering the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid, critics say.

ExxonMobil has contributed $5 million to the Tsunami relief efforts. In Aceh, the company operates one of the largest gas fields in the world and they're being sued for gross human rights violations. We speak with a lawyer who has just returned from Indonesia where he was interviewing witnesses against ExxonMobil from Aceh.