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ACEH remains very difficult to access even if restrictions for some international media and some humanistarian agencies appear to have eased. A temporary cease-fire seems to be holding.
There are warnings for displaced landmines. There is no petrol, food or water available, so bring loads of supplies. Bring as many water purification tablets as you can carry, not only for yourself but also to give away. The U.N. warned of epidemics within days across southern Asia if health systems could not cope, saying the effects of disease could be as bad as the tsunami itself. Hospitals in Aceh are already overcrowded with victims of the conflict and cannot cope with the disaster victims.
All drinking water in Aceh will be contaminated, bring purification tablets or enough drinking water, sanitation is gone. Threat of Cholera extremely high, bring your own medicine, hospitals are not coping with the situation.
The terrain in Aceh is very hostile, there are not a lot of roads. There is widespread use of landmines. Trauma Reporting guidelines are available thru the Dart Centre website
 JAKARTA, Jan 2 (AFP) - Indonesian troops killed three separatist rebels in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh, the military said Sunday, further discrediting an apparent ceasefire meant to be in place to aid relief efforts.
A subdistrict guerrilla commander with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and two of his men died in a clash with troops in northern Aceh on Saturday, military spokesman Ari Mulya Asnawi said, according to the state Antara news agency.
Asnawi, who could not be immediately reached from Jakarta by telephone, reportedly said the clash erupted after the rebels tried to ambush a passing convoy of military trucks that was carrying disaster relief supplies.
Troops also captured five suspected rebels in two other incidents in northern Aceh on Saturday, Asnawi said.
News of the clashes comes as the Indonesian military is playing a leading role in the massive multinational relief operation in Aceh following last Sunday's tsunami disaster that killed up to 100,000 people on Sumatra island.
Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto called on Monday for an unprecedented temporary ceasefire with the rebels so focus could be shifted onto rebuilding Aceh, in the north of Sumatra which suffered the most damage.
"All my soldiers will be used to help overcome this natural disaster and I hope that GAM will also do the same, not using the opportunity for something else because this is really something to do with humanitarian problems," he said.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday also urged GAM rebels, who have been fighting for independence since 1976, to lay down their weapons and join efforts to rebuild Aceh.
"I call on those who are still raising arms, to come out... let us use this historic momentum to join and be united again," Yudhoyono said.
But by Friday the military had admitted it was continuing its military offensive.
"Our security operations continue, the only difference is that it may be less in scale and intensity," Lieutenant Colonel Nachrowi, of the military headquarters' general information department, told AFP.
"The principle is that all our forces in Aceh are basically continuing their duty under the security operation. But they also have to accord a large portion of their time for the humanitarian relief efforts.
"We continue to launch raids into suspected GAM areas and our vigilance remains high."
The exiled GAM leadership claimed on Tuesday to have imposed its own unilateral ceasefire, but said there had been no evidence of the army having laid down its arms.
"We declared a unilateral ceasefire, but some of our people have been killed in ambushes," GAM spokesman Bakhtir Abdullah told AFP in Sweden. |