State Of Acheh: Thank You World

State Of Acheh: Thank You World

The leadership of the State of Acheh in exile wishes to express our most profound gratitude to the governments of the United States of America, Japan, Australia, European Union, China, Asean States, New Zealand, the United Nations Organizations and non-governmental organizations for their prompt and massive aid now pouring into our devastated country.

A special gratitude goes to all humanitarian workers, journalists and not the least to all foreign military personnel now operating in some of the most difficult and remote parts of our country.

While it is true that for the most part that the relief goods are still blocked in the capital city of Banda Acheh and even in larger quantities in Jakarta and at the North Sumatra city of Medan and this problem is caused not by any lack of expertise and hard-work on the part of the international community, governmental as well as NGOs, but rather on the un-cooperative attitude of the Indonesian authorities.

We understand no effort is spared to overcome all kinds of delivery problems, from physical inaccessibility due to the destroyed infrastructures, to the outright criminal recalcitrant refusal on the part of the Indonesian military to cooperate and allow the distribution of aid to be carried out immediately without hindrance.

Today we found ourselves reading this heartwarming news:

"Saturday January 1, 05:35 PM: Marines join Acheh relief efforts. Thousands of United States marines and air force personnel have arrived off the coast of Indonesia's Acheh to deliver emergency aid through the devastated country. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which has 12 Seahawk helicopters on board is now stationed off the coast near Banda Acheh. Four more US Navy ships are nearby, all with around 4,000 military personnel. The helicopters have begun flights over much of Acheh, dropping emergency food, medicines and other aid to victims of the tsunami disaster. The US embassy in Jakarta says the ships also have the capacity to clean up to 340,000 litres of water per day. Australian Hercules aircraft continue to shuttle other supplies from further south."

We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our commitment and to assure the world community that our forces are strictly maintaining the unilateral ceasefire that we have ordered within 24 hours of the disaster to facilitate the safe deliveries of the aid. Journalists, human rights monitors, humanitarian workers as well as foreign military personnel involved in relief operations are all free to enter any part of the country under our control.

We welcome any initiative taken by the international community to turn our unilateral ceasefire into a formal ceasefire agreement with the Indonesian forces in order to create peaceful and conducive environment on the ground while the relief operation is going on.

Stockholm, January 1, 2005

Malik Mahmud

Prime Minister in Exile
State of Acheh

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