BANDA ACEH, 29 December 2008 (IRIN) - Four years after the December 2004 Asian tsunami which killed some 167,000 people in this west Indonesian province, the recovery and rehabilitation phase is winding down and the government and aid agencies are seeking ways to consolidate a fragile peace.

Peace was established in August 2005 with the signing of a Memo of Understanding (MOU), between the government and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), the Free Aceh secessionist movement, ending three decades of conflict.

Anniversary commemorations for the tsunami victims were more subdued this year, with prayers held at local mosques. At Blang Bintang, the largest of two mass graves in Banda Aceh - which according to local officials contains 20,000-30,000 people - families prayed, many weeping openly.

A young girl, clothed head-to-foot in black, sat alone, quietly crying as she tossed colourful petals onto the grass, while nearby a group of Chinese Acehnese held a formal memorial service.

A formal commemoration was held in West Aceh's capital of Meulaboh, where a speech by Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the head of Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR), the Indonesian Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency, was read in his absence. He praised the fact that more than 120,000 homes, 3,500km of roads, 266 bridges, 20 ports, 12 airports, 954 health facilities, 1,450 school buildings and 979 public offices had been reconstructed.

According to BRR, US$6.7 billion of the roughly US$7.2 billion in pledges made by donors has been spent.

Discontent

Nonetheless, complaints still exist of houses and schools and other infrastructure yet to be built, and the fourth anniversary commemoration included a demonstration, in front of the West Aceh Legislative Council, of tsunami survivors who had yet to receive housing.

Addressing such discontent in his speech, Kuntoro said: "We are conscious that handling so many development projects in so short a time could lead to inaccuracies… We seek forgiveness for whatever imperfections there are."

In a December 2008 the Asian Development Bank Institute report entitled Reconstruction after a Major Disaster: Lessons from the Post-Tsunami Experience in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, the BRR is cited as stating that 30,000 houses remained to be built.

[see http://www.adbi.org/workingpaper/2008/12/15/2766.reconstruction.post.tsunami.experience/].

The authors of the report, Sisira Jayasuriya and Peter McCawley, say: "It may be perhaps too early even in late 2008 to make judgments other than to note that it would not be surprising if delays occurred for all the well-known sorts of factors (such as hold-ups in project preparation, difficulties in acquiring land, and negotiations over funding details) that often cause delays in long-term development programmes."

Corruption thwarted?

From the outset there was concern that large-scale corruption might occur. However, BRR, working with international and local agencies, established fairly effective mechanisms for full transparency and accountability, including an award-winning website, RAN [see http://rand.brr.go.id/RAND/] in which all project data is posted and beneficiaries can voice their opinions and complaints.

BRR completes its four-year mandate in April 2009, at which time provincial and district governments will take over, but with reduced human and financial resources, according to the UN Office of the Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias (UNORC).

Unemployment

Kuntoro expressed concern about the remaining gaps, saying the massive infusion of financial aid had helped coastal communities bounce back, but unemployment - particularly amongst former GAM fighters and the youth, whose expectations were raised high with the signing of the 2005 MOU - is currently 20 percent and the rural economy in the interior has been neglected.

The transition to provincial and district control is slated to happen in roughly the same time frame as the April parliamentary elections in which the GAM is expected to do well.

Capacity building

"2005 was the emergency relief phase, and 2006-2008 the recovery and reconstruct phase, with lots having been achieved," Fabrice Boussalam, recovery affairs adviser for UNORC, told IRIN. "2009 and 2010 will be the capacity building phase… the time to establish social policies that are sustainable."

In anticipation of the transition, UN agencies and NGOs are working with the provincial authorities in the development of the Aceh Recovery Framework (ARF), a four-year transitional strategy to achieve sustainable peace and prosperity.

"Providing capacity training, education, health and livelihoods, particularly to former GAM fighters and their communities is a high priority," according to Paul Greening, project manager for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Aceh. Most development officials, however, question whether provincial and local authorities have the capacity and training for the task.

"Aceh doesn't have the capacity," one UN official told IRIN. "I'm not sure we are up to the task… We have the resources to build a school in six months, but to train teachers and build livelihoods takes years."

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