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.

Matthew Moore and Karuni Rompies – They look like barbeque chips or mulga roots and exude a comforting smell drifting between fresh timber and flowers. Burn them and they produce rich smoke said to warm the lungs and drive out asthma. Distil them and they'll produce oil so potent it can perfume a beard for weeks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kupang – Atambua Bishop Anton Pain Ratu has called on the Timor Leste government to grant amnesty to former pro-Jakarta militia as part of efforts to end refugee problems in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara province.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

John Mcbeth, Jakarta – When relief workers brought the first aid to the devastated Western coast of Aceh a few days after the December 26 earthquake, they were greeted by one surviving Indonesian soldier asking plaintively: "Where is America, where is America?" America, in the form of a carrier battle group, urgently-needed helicopters and giant cargo planes, arrived in force in ear

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bob Burton, Canberra – Despite his reputation as a progressive social thinker, former Australian Labor Party prime minister Gough Whitlam – according to just declassified documents – refused to criticise the invasion of East Timor by the Indonesian military in December 1975 or the subsequent brutal treatment of its population.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Danang Widoyoko – The new government has vowed to take real action against corrupt officials in its first 100 days as a form of "shock therapy" in an effort to gain public trust. But properly enforcing the law against such a widespread problem, with so many involved, is nothing short of a monumental task.

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.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) was again urged on Thursday to prohibit government officials from holding double positions in an effort to fight corruption.

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.