MP wants NZ to reject Indonesian aid restrictions

Keith Locke

New Zealand should add its voice to calls for a ceasefire in Aceh to allow aid for victims of Boxing Day's devastating tsunami to flow freely, Green MP Keith Locke said today.

Refugees in the shattered province have said much of the help is not getting through.

"What we could like is for the countries who are giving aid to Indonesia to give it directly to the people, not go through the government. That is the only way," one man has told Reuters.

Mr Locke said it was shocking aid was not reaching those who desperately needed it and that New Zealand should join other governments in pushing for an end to all fighting in Aceh.

"Surely everyone has their hands full with the aid effort. The Indonesian military should put aside their guns and concentrate on that," he said in a statement.

International relief workers have said they are assessing new security regulations imposed by Indonesia that require all foreigners to register with authorities and mandate military escorts for those who venture out of the province's two urban centres of Banda Aceh and Meulaboh.

But Mr Locke also called on the international community to reject those regulations.

"The Red Cross and other aid groups have to be non-partisan and can't go around Aceh accompanied by troops, as the Indonesian government wants them to," he said.

"Relief to the people of Aceh is too important to be frustrated by the Indonesian military's narrow agenda, which is to reassert its control over the province."

- NZPA