Bill Guerin, Jakarta – In the wake of the tsunami tragedy that has claimed more than 80,000 Indonesian lives, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called on his people to approach the New Year with optimism.

Throughout Indonesia, people of all backgrounds and from all islands have been mobilising to collect and send aid to the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Aceh.

Meulaboh – A dozen towns that once thrived near here are gone. Some 10,000 people have been buried, local officials say, and the effort to collect bodies cannot keep up.

Edward Cody, Bung Bak Yok – Rukaiyah's right arm has swollen dangerously, pus leaking from an angry gash along the inside of her elbow. The skin has yellowed on a forearm puffy all the way to the wrist.

Unchecked infection has led to the threat – and maybe the onset – of gangrene.

Six days after the tsunami waves swept the coast of the Indonesian province of Aceh and part of North Sumatra, causing the loss of at least 80,000 lives, the victims are still lacking access to relief supposedly distributed by the state apparatus.

Endy M. Bayuni, Jakarta – Bodies are still scattered on the streets and under the rubble in Banda Aceh, Meulaboh and many other towns in Aceh. Tens of thousands of survivors are still without food, clean water, medicines or even clothes to change into. Their ordeal and suffering continue.

Jakarta – Many of the planned New Year's celebrations will become charity events in the wake of Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and deadly tidal waves in Aceh and other nations on Indian Ocean that killed at least 80,000 in Aceh alone as of Thursday night.

The Indonesian military says it is continuing to launch raids against separatist rebels in tsunami-devastated Aceh, despite having earlier called a ceasefire to help aid efforts.

Lindsay Murdoch, Meulaboh – The suffering in this once-bustling seaside town of 40,000 on Sumatra's west coast is unimaginable.

Five days after the massive earthquake struck beneath the seabed only 60 kilometres south-west of here, most survivors have received no food, drinking water, medicines or outside help.

Donald Greenlees, Banda Aceh – The home that Epayani left behind at Meulaboh, on the west coast of Indonesia's Aceh province, now lies under the sea.

Her last memory of the concrete cottage in a military compound is of waves crashing against the roofline before she was thrown into the swirling water.

The death toll in the tsunami tragedy that swept Indonesia, in Aceh and North Sumatra is feared to have killed nearly 40,000-80,000 people.

Alan Sipress, Banda Aceh – At the Indonesian military's primary airfield here, cartons of instant noodles, bottled water and medicine were stacked high inside a hangar Wednesday, awaiting delivery to camps filled with desperate tsunami victims.

Maire Leadbeater – The year is ending tragically for hundreds of thousands of our Southeast Asian neighbours. The only hope to be drawn from the sad situation is the thought that the international community is geared to respond with urgent aid.

Stephen Fitzpatrick and Patrick Walters – The first shocking images of Sumatra's devastated west coast emerged yesterday, leading authorities to dramatically increase the estimated toll from Sunday's disaster and increasing the pressure on Australia to take a leading role in the reconstruction of tsunami-hit Indonesia.

Sian Powell, Aceh – It was the stuff of nightmares in Aceh's capital city yesterday but it was an essential step to preventing epidemics of cholera and other diseases – an excavator working overtime scooping corpses into a truck for rapid transfer to a mass grave.

Lindsay Murdoch, Simeulue – From the air, it could be Hiroshima – a town hit with such devastating force it has literally been flattened.

Lone buildings and palm trees inexplicably left standing are all that remains of the Indonesian town of Meulaboh – about 60 kilometres north-east of the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake.

US-based groups with a long record of experience in the region today called on the Indonesian government to not let politics override the needs of people in tsunami stricken Aceh. The groups include the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and Nonviolence International (NI).

Amy Goodman, host

Sunday morning, December 26th 2004, Tsunami waves hit Aceh and North Sumatra. It was the biggest disaster in Indonesia since the last 40 years. The Tsunami was caused by an earthquake of 8,9 Richter scale.

The Indonesian government announced today that the status of civil emergency has been lifted in Aceh because of the situation in the region in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunamis which struck on 26 December. However, it is clear that restrictions will remain in force.

A massive earthquake December 26 in the Java Trench off Sumatra spawned tsunamis that have killed tens of thousands in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, the Maldives, Thailand and east Africa. The embattled Indonesian province of Aceh, home to a militant separatist movement, was hardest hit.

Erlangga Djumana – Vice President Jusuf Kalla announced on 29 December that the civil emergency status has been lifted in Aceh, following the virtual breakdown of the local government in the province, as a result of the earthquake and tsunamis that have struck the region since 26 December.

Phelim Kyne, Jakarta – Rampant corruption will take a massive bite out of millions of dollars in aid to Indonesia's earthquake-stricken province of Aceh unless the government tightens control mechanisms, government officials and analysts warned Wednesday.

Jakarta – Shocked and grieved by the massive devastation and loss of life wrought by the earthquake and tsunamis that hit Aceh and North Sumatra, Indonesians have turned out in droves to donate money to aid agencies.

Lindsay Murdoch, Banda Aceh – They have blank stares and don't speak. We walked together, among black and bloated bodies still lying in the streets of Banda Aceh three days after 25 minutes of terror tore apart a sunny holiday morning.

"We thought it was the end of the world," said Sofyan Halim, 37, who has lost 15 members of his family.

Max Lane, chair of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific, condemned the departure today from Brisbane of the sixth Australian Defence Force Security Detachment to Bagdad.

He said Australian troops should be deployed to assist the tens of thousands of tsunami victims in Asia, rather than help create more mayhem in Iraq.

Jakarta – Tectonic earthquake followed by tsunami that swept through Aceh and North Sumatra is the greatest disaster hit Indonesia for the last decade. Recently, Aceh is still in paralyzed condition. The electricity and telephones break down caused difficulty to access information to the impacted areas.

Salim Osman, Jakarta – Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh used funds earmarked for salaries of civil servants to buy a Russian-made helicopter two years ago, Indonesia's anti-corruption court was told yesterday.

The massive tsunami that hit Aceh province has brought a temporary halt to fighting between rebels and government troops in the region, and could spur efforts to settle the decades-long conflict, analysts say.

Wayne Arnold and Eric Lichtblau, Lhokseumawe – Mulyana, a 24-year-old housewife, had just sat down to a wedding party on Sunday morning when the tsunami struck. She ran and held on to a coconut tree. But the water pulled her away anyway, far out to sea.

The oil-rich Indonesian province of Aceh was one of the few places hit by both southern Asia's massive earthquake and the tsunamis it caused – a double blow that killed thousands and wreaked so much devastation that separatists fighting a decades-long insurgency called a temporary ceasefire.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – As thousands of Acehnese were killed in the most devastating natural disaster in the country's history, Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh went on trial on Monday on corruption charges in Jakarta.

Tim Johnston – For the people of the northern province of Aceh, Sunday's earthquake brought a two-fold disaster. First they were hit by tremors that brought down buildings and damaged roads. Then came the tsunamis.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, Tapol calls for the region of Aceh to be opened up to international aid agencies.

In Indonesia's Aceh province the government's figures have passed five thousand but some officials believe that number could well double. The provincial capital, Banda Aceh, has been destroyed.

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Cave

Speakers: Tim Palmer, Indonesia correspondent

Banda Aceh – Indonesian troops killed 18 separatist rebels in a single day in the latest clashes in restive Aceh province, the military said on Saturday.

The rebels were killed in four separate clashes on Friday, Aceh military spokesman Ari Mulya Asnawi said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Claiming that security threats will remain high in 2005, the Indonesian Military (TNI) is planning to send personnel to conflict-prone areas to engage in what it calls a "non-physical civic missions" (hearts and minds missions).

Jakarta – The head of the Aceh desk at the ministry of politics, legal and security affairs, Police Inspector General Demak Lubis, says that the operation to restore security in Aceh is going well.

Banda Aceh – At least two separatist rebels were killed and another 30 taken into custody in Indonesia's conflict-hit Aceh province in the past two days, the military said on Thursday.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – After claiming to have successfully cracked down on the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the military is now planning to intensify intelligence operations against rebels in the troubled province.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Dailami, 31, could not hide the sadness on his face during the conclusion of the third phase of the rehabilitation program for former Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) members.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has dishonorably discharged eight soldiers for insubordination during their tour of duty in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

Nani Afrida, Central Aceh – Musirah, 50, remembered the day her village fought against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), when hundreds of armed insurgents besieged the village on June 6, 2001.

The guerrillas had previously attacked and burned down other villages in the districts of Batu, Timang Gajah, Bandar and Syiah Utama.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – "Are you Acehnese? Then you must be GAM." This sort of intimidating remark is frequently uttered by soldiers when conducting checking motorists and passers-by for identity cards and weapons. Local resident Muhammad, 32, has had enough of it.

Nala Edwin, Jakarta – The People's Lawyers Union (Serikat Pengacara Rakyat, SPR) has launched a class action against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of 9.02 trillion rupiah for failing to repeal the state of emergency in Aceh and instead extending it through government regulation Number 2/2004.

At least ten suspected rebels have been killed in gunbattles this week in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, the army said Wednesday.

Nine rebels were gunned down by government troops in three separate clashes on Monday, said Ary Mulya Asnawi, an army spokesman in North Aceh's capital Lhokseumawe. He added that three soldiers were wounded.

Jakarta – In one of the Indonesia's highest profile anti-corruption arrests to date, prosecutors on Tuesday detained the governor of Aceh province for allegedly embezzling US$1.3 million of state funds.

Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Amid stepped-up security measures imposed by the civil emergency administration, conditions in strife-torn Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam remained relatively calm on the 28th anniversary of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Saturday.

Nani Afrida and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Anticipating possible skirmishes during the 28th anniversary of the Aceh Free Movement (GAM) on December 4, the civil emergency administration on Friday banned the populace from engaging in any activities related to the occasion.

Banda Aceh – Officials threatened to "shoot on sight" rebels caught raising separatist flags in Aceh province to mark the anniversary of their movement today. But the rebels remained defiant.