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.
On Wednesday, rich creditor nations meeting in Paris agreed to freeze debt repayments for all affected nations, freeing badly-needed funds for rehabilitation.
Indonesia is the nation worst hit by the December 26 earthquake and tsunami and owes about $48 billion. It would have to pay more than $3 billion in principal repayments alone this year – about the same amount it says it needs to recover from the crisis.
"The suspension takes effect immediately," Jean-Pierre Jouyet, president of the Paris Club of creditor nations, told a news conference after the talks.
More than 106,000 died in Indonesia during the disaster, 30,000 in Sri Lanka, 15,000 in India and 5,300 in Thailand.
US officials said they were seeking clarification from Jakarta on a statement that it wanted the thousands of foreign troops helping organize the relief to leave by March.
The Indonesian government is edgy about a large foreign presence in an area where separatists have fought the army for three decades, although both sides have avoided major clashes since the tsunami.
"Obviously, I think that we want to make sure that there is rapid and immediate relief provided to all the affected persons," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
"And that remains a priority for the United States, as well as the international relief organizations in the area. And so we'll seek further clarification from Indonesia about what this means."
The United Nations said it had met Indonesian officials about restrictions announced on the movement of aid workers in Aceh.
Margareta Wahlstrom of Sweden, the deputy UN relief coordinator, met Indonesian officials to get clarification "and assess the operational impacts, if any, of this announcement," said Kevin Kennedy, a senior official in the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs.
Jakarta has said it cannot guarantee the safety of foreign workers outside the provincial capital Banda Aceh and the devastated city of Meulaboh, just 150 km from the epicenter of the magnitude 9 earthquake that set off the tsunami.
It has asked that they accept army escorts if moving outside these cities. "We certainly well understand there has been a conflict in Aceh for the last quarter of a century," said Kennedy. "However, we are concerned that any requirements that would create additional bottlenecks or delays or otherwise adversely reflect our operations need to be reviewed very carefully."