Posted on 01/01/2005 7:23:40 AM PST by Prospero
Sin causes suffering, but very often the one who does the sinning is NOT the one who does the suffering.
WOW.
Still, the fellows at Aceh have been at this independence thing since before the Battle of Batavia. Guess that proves God is slow to anger.
And His being slow to anger, I thank him also for being quick to forgive.
I am listening to the CNN reporter who was with our helicoptors from the Abraham Lincoln when they landed on Aceh....We are working very hard to help these people who consider us the enemy...I believe even the Indonesian govt had no access to this area before the earthquake..They are desperate for water and food.
I understood Banda Aceh was under martial law before the quake.
Pounding rain drenched the wrecked city of Banda Aceh and aftershocks shook the area Saturday, adding to the misery of homeless earthquake and tsunami survivors and heightening fears of waterborne diseases.
Aftershocks rattled the region, including a 6.5-magnitude quake 215 miles west of Banda Aceh on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Smaller aftershocks hit northern Sumatra and the Nicobar and Andaman islands, a remote Indian archipelago just north of Sumatra.
Saturday's rainstorm in Banda Aceh was the first since last Sunday's disaster. Health workers have warned that heavy rain could spread diseases like cholera and diarrhea. Thousands of uncollected corpses remain in and around the city.
http://www.laksamana.net/vnews.cfm?ncat=48&news_id=7777
You are correct.
Church burnings have been an intermittent occurrence for the past 30 years. (Aceh was a forerunner in the significant increase of attacks on churches that has taken place throughout Indonesia.) The most significant protestant church in Banda Aceh, the capital, was burned down in the early 90's. Subsequently, permission to rebuild was refused.
Local church communities can have great difficulty getting permission to have a place for worship, e.g. having to build over water, or use the back of a shop.
Christians employed as teachers in schools (posted by the state education system) can come under enormous pressures to convert to Islam. Prayer for these isolated Christians is urgently needed.
The potential for conflict is perhaps greatest in South Aceh, where Batak ethnic communities include both Christians and Muslims. Without a clear ethnic-religious alignment, conversion to Christianity does not bring loss of ethnic identity and this can make conversion easier. Consequently, greater pressure could be brought to bear on the Christian community. (This is just my hypothesising about why South Aceh has been a region of conflict.)
Persecution of Christians is sometimes hard to distinguish from persecution of Chinese. During the massacres of "communists" in the 1960's, many Chinese Christians were killed. In Aceh a religious test was sometimes applied: if the person could not recite the Arabic confession of faith in Islam they were put to death. I had this from a Muslim person who narrowly survived the massacres.
Having lived there, I knew, sooner or later, we'd have to become closer or become enemies. Isn't it the most populated nation with a Muslim majority?
I rather think policy makers will be asking for more and more information about Indonesia in the coming weeks.
The link reminds me of the pressures on Djakarta to pass autonomy on. What an interesting understatement to read that the Civil Emergency in Aceh is, in effect, over.
Australia is our help in Indonesia, I believe...There are the militant Muslims and the not so militant Muslims who fight and the rest are always in danger.
http://www.terrorismanswers.com/havens/indonesia.html
At one time I had a link to a file by backhoe..I cannot find it.
Aceh was a problem for the Thais as well, in Rama I's time to be exact!
Great article. Great thread. It finally addresses some of the things I've been wondering about. You've added a whole new angle to the catastrophe.
Thanks, both of you.
Thank you!
Perhaps it's not a bad thing that there will be plenty of US forces milling about the area for some time to come. I hope we make some friends.
I forgot that this was the thread you listed all the research sites when I was a real newbie!
I saw the same report. I believe that the CNN reported mentioned how surprised he was at the generally polite demeanor of the survivors, even as the first relief supplies were distributed.
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