By JESSIE MULDOON

WHEN THE devastating tsunami hit the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, George W. Bush remained silent for three days. He then pledged an embarrassingly low amount of aid, $15 million. Over the next few days the pledge was increased to $35 million, then to its current $350 million—about thirty-six hours worth of U.S. spending on the war in Iraq. If past experience is any guide, much of that aid money will not be delivered. The rest, however, will not come cheaply to the region.

Much as the tragedy of September 11 provided an opening for the Bush administration to go on a military offensive, the tsunami has provided a political opening for the U.S. both to improve its public image and to exert influence in the Indian Ocean region. In her confirmation hearings, Condoleezza Rice cynically remarked that the tsunami provides “a marvelous opportunity” for the United States to show the Muslim world its “generosity of heart.”

So what does this “marvelous opportunity” consist of? Resuming military trade with Indonesia is paramount. Since 1991 the U.S. has had a ban on military sales to Indonesia as a result of the Indonesian military’s (TNI’s) massacre of Timorese activists in November 1991, using U.S.-supplied M-16s.

But since September 11, relations with Indonesia have thawed in the global “war on terror.” Indonesia is perceived as a potential ally in the Muslim world and resuming relations with them as a trading partner is appealing to the United States. Using the tsunami as an excuse, the U.S. has already relaxed the ban on providing military equipment to Indonesia: spare parts for American-made C-130 helicopters are already arriving. These helicopters have a loaded history in Indonesia, as they were also used by the military to suppress the Acehnese independence movement in the northern part of the island of Sumatra.

Colin Powell, then-secretary of state, commented on U.S. interests in providing aid. “We are supporting [humanitarian relief] because we believe it is in the best interests of those countries and it’s in our own best interest, and it dries up those pools of dissatisfaction which might give rise to terrorist activities.”

To serve these interests, the main U.S. government relief effort in Sumatra was carried out by 13,000 armed U.S. Marines (they later agreed to work unarmed at the insistence of the Indonesian government) and naval air crews, working off the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Indonesian deaths from the tsunami are up to 166,000, most of them concentrated in the area in and around Aceh. Many villagers living in huts and villagers dependent on their boats for their livelihoods have lost everything. But perhaps it is the political dynamics of Aceh and Indonesia that will be the greatest barrier to rebuilding. Aceh has been wracked by poverty and civil war for twenty-five years and is essentially under occupation of the Indonesian military that so generously protects ExxonMobil.

The Acehnese have been struggling for independence for decades. The Indonesian military, notoriously cruel and vicious, brutally repressed the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Repression of the Acehnese began with Suharto’s bloody rise in 1965, and led to the formation of the GAM in 1976.

When the tsunami hit, aid workers were denied entry, and then forced to travel with the TNI. This led some aid workers to leave in frustration. Reports have continued to emerge implicating the military in corruption for selling aid that was meant to be distributed for free, and refusing aid to those suspected of being members of GAM.

The military is also keeping pace with killing Acehnese, even now, as Aceh has not even begun to recover. By February, 200 Acehnese were reported killed by the Indonesian military. As reported January 8 in the New York Times, the Indonesian military “continues to patrol on a hair trigger where some 10,000 people have been killed in more than 25 years of strife.”

U.S. companies are also using the tragedy to both promote themselves as philanthropists, and paper over labor and human rights violations in the past. ExxonMobil, which since 1969 has operated one of the world’s largest natural gas fields in Aceh, the Arun gas fields, has pledged $5 million to the tsunami relief effort. This pales in comparison to the profits it has made in Aceh—$40 billion—and the blood it has helped spill there. According to the Asia Times, ExxonMobil pays the Indonesian military “about $6 million per year for ‘security’ at its Aceh natural-gas operations.” The Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) has filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit on behalf of Acehnese villagers “who were tortured and murdered by the TNI on ExxonMobil’s premises.”

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The TNI used ExxonMobil equipment or facilities to conduct the torture and to dispose of those killed. For example, one of the plaintiffs in the ILRF case was “disappeared” for a period of three months, during which time he was repeatedly beaten and tortured with electric shocks. He was then taken to an open pit where he was shown a large pile of human heads. He was told that he would be killed and his head would be added to the pile. He was eventually released, but soldiers burned down his home thereafter. Another plaintiff, who was several months pregnant, was raped and beaten by a soldier who forced his way into her home. These examples are typical of the stories of dozens of innocent civilians living around the ExxonMobil area of operations.
The ExxonMobil facilities were not significantly damaged by the tsunami, thanks to concrete barriers that had been erected long ago to protect the site. The company’s gas-extraction operations are ongoing, and ExxonMobil personnel reportedly are continuing to work in the area without problems.

The Paris Club has introduced the idea of a debt moratorium to postpone payments for a period of months. In a country like Indonesia with the greatest number of deaths and such an enormous debt burden it is a drop in the bucket. And granting the delay in payments could come with strings attached, as the original loans themselves did. But a rescheduling of the debt is really just a public relations gesture by creditor nations. Debt will need to be repaid one way or the other.

When asked about debt relief for Indonesia by a reporter from the Jakarta Post, former ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz replied, “Life isn’t that simple unfortunately.”

When it comes to the U.S. and the world’s leading powers, aid is never free. It always comes with strings attached. According to a January 16 report by Alan Boyd in the Asia Times:

Relief organizations have calculated that as much as 75 percent of foreign aid is directly tied to trade access or other economic and political strategies. Some comes with so many strings attached, including preferential tendering on contracts and the hiring of consultants, that only 30–40 percent of dollar value is ever realized.

U.S. policy dictates that much foreign aid be spent on costly imported medicines, weapons, agricultural produce or manufactured goods. Some European nations have a similar approach.

The words of socialist journalist John Reed, speaking at the Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East in 1920, are appropriate here:

Uncle Sam is not one ever to give anybody something for nothing. He comes along with a sack stuffed with straw in one hand and a whip in the other. Whoever takes Uncle Sam’s promises at their face value will find himself obliged to pay for them with blood and sweat.

SWITZERLAND
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