UN officials ban travel in part of tsunami-hit region
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - Security fears have again threatened to hamper tsunami relief efforts, with U.N. officials banning aid workers from traveling in parts of devastated Aceh province following reports that fighting had broken out between Indonesian government forces and insurgents.
The proposed creation of a tsunami warning system for southern Asia, meanwhile, was to dominate discussions at a U.N. conference that opened Tuesday in Japan.
Experts say countless lives could have been saved on Dec. 26 if such a system had been in place.
"Much more attention has to be given to disaster prevention and preparedness,'' said Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, as thousands of delegates and experts from around the world gathered in Kobe.
"We should be more than a fire brigade.''
Not just Asia was on edge. A world away in Concepcion, Chile, a false tsunami warning overnight sent 12,000 people fleeing from their homes in panic, after three men ran through a beach shouting that a massive wave was coming, said regional Governor Rodrigo Diaz.
He called the warning "a bad joke.''
Last month's tsunami disaster, triggered by a powerful earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, killed more than 160,000 people and ravaged vast stretches of coastline from Thailand to Somalia.
More than two-thirds of the deaths were in Sumatra's northern province of Aceh, where separatists have been fighting for an independent state for decades.
Denmark on Monday cautioned its aid workers to beware of an imminent terror attack - prompting U.N. officials to launch an investigation and declare a state of "heightened awareness'' in Aceh, where a small battle was reportedly going on between Indonesia's army and the rebels.
Denmark didn't explain the source of the threat. U.N. aid workers were banned from traveling between the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and the east Sumatran city of Medan, a 450-kilometer (280-mile) stretch of road.
Joel Boutroue, the head of the U.N. relief effort in Aceh, said the ban "was not due to any specific threat'' and that it would be reviewed Tuesday.
Rebel leader Tengku Mucksalmina insisted that aid workers had nothing to fear, saying "our mothers, our wives, our children are victims from this tragedy.''
"We want them (aid groups) to stay,'' Mucksalmina told The Associated Press from his jungle hideout outside Banda Aceh.
"We ask them not to leave the Acehnese people who are suffering.''
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa declined to say whether the U.N. precautions were necessary.
He said that he could not assess them until he understood the rationale for the Danish warning. Relief efforts are being led by nearly 15,000 U.S. troops - most of whom are docked off the coast of western Sumatra island.
Australia, Singapore, Germany and other nations also have contributed troops.
Other governments whose nationals are working in Aceh said they had not upgraded their security warnings in recent days.
Aid groups like Save The Children said late Monday after the U.N. announcement that it hadn't heard of any new security threats, but would take appropriate measures.
"It would take for us to have to hear something that would be a great security risk for our staff to stop delivering aid, because we know children are in great need,'' spokeswoman Eileen Burke said in Banda Aceh. - AP
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