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By Jean-Pierre Taschereau, Canadian Red Cross
When I left Banda Aceh behind me in September 2001, I could never have imagined that this small costal town would become the centre of the largest emergency relief operation in modern history just a few years later. Back then, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was one of the only humanitarian organizations providing assistance to victims of armed conflict–well away from the attention of the international community for several years.
Two days after the disaster on December 26, the first Emergency Response Units (ERUs) from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement were heading towards the north of the island of Sumatra to support volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross who had been providing assistance to those affected by the disaster from day one.
I was dispatched urgently to Jakarta by the Canadian Red Cross on December 29. Throughout my trip, I could not stop thinking about what happened to the friends and colleagues whom I had worked with for five months in Aceh. The Red Cross had lost several personnel members because of the disaster.
When natural disasters occur, the International Red Cross responds urgently to restore water and food supplies, distribute shelter materials and blankets and establish field hospitals to meet the needs of survivors.
The waves that crashed down on Aceh destroyed all of the inhabitants’ rain water collection systems and contaminated drinking wells with salt water. In the first month after the disaster, volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross recovered more than 60,000 corpses.
Therefore it was crucial to deploy as rapidly as possible the ERUs specialized in water, sanitation and primary health care.
However, the work of humanitarian organizations was complicated somewhat by logistical constraints. The bridges and roads linking Aceh to the rest of the island of Sumatra were destroyed and the only way to send relief was by airplane. Even the port of Banda Aceh was so damaged that sending materials by cargo ship was not possible until several weeks later when the platforms were repaired.
In just a few days, a serious bottleneck formed at the Medan airport the point of entry for all assistance arriving in Indonesia, with aircraft sent by international agencies arriving faster than cargo could be sent by ground. An alternative solution had to be found.
I arrived at the airport in Batam, an island south of Singapore unaffected by the tsunami. At least seven airplanes chartered by the Red Cross Societies of various countries were headed towards Indonesia with their ERUs. A brief meeting with the local Red Cross, the Governor and airport authorities was enough to reassure us of their total support for our operations. I was thus able to send a brief message to Red Cross headquarters in Geneva stating that all air traffic to Indonesia could now go to Batam.
As I would realize several times in weeks to come, every problem had a solution that lead to further problems. In the first days of the operation, the Banda Aceh airport had to restrict access to its air space to aircraft capable of returning without needing to refuel. The fuel supply chain was jeopardized by the destruction of roads and could not meet the increase in demand brought on by incessant air traffic.
At this point, British Petroleum offered to give us access to a C-130 Hercules based in Singapore. The multi fuel tank aircraft performed its first connection to Banda Aceh on January 5. In the coming month, more than 360 tonnes of materials–including generators, 4X4 vehicles, pumps, medications, tents, food and blankets–along with 53 ERU members were sent to the scene of the disaster aboard this aircraft.
Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of survivors were still cut off from the province’s capital and the assistance there. Helicopters had to be deployed to transport teams to their operational bases on both coasts where the Red Cross was operating. Ten or so flights were required to deploy all of the ERUs.
These efforts would pay off. The French ERU provided more than 90,000 litres of drinking water daily to the population of Samalanga. The Japanese field hospital in Meulaboh received over 300 patients a day. The relentless efforts of these teams, and of dozens of others from numerous local and international organizations, allowed the population of Aceh to avoid another tragedy.
In 2001, while sipping tea near a mosque, I remember chatting with an imam about relations between the Muslim world and the West. His words stood out in my mind as he said: “We are but different branches of the same tree called humanity”.
With these relief teams arriving from all four corners of the planet–from the United Arab Emirates, to Japan, Qatar and Canada–I was once again witness to a show of strength that transcends all religious and political divides: the power of humanity.
This article was originally published in the Canadian Consortium on Human Security's Bulletin.