Publicity: As pictures emerged earlier this year of the earthquake devastation in Haiti, the images of loss, aguish and destruction were chillingly familiar. We’d seen this before and on our own doorstep. The Tsunami, which slammed into coastal communities from Thailand to Sri Lanka and beyond exacted its most appalling toll in Aceh, Indonesia where about 170,000 people were killed. Once the epic scale of the disaster became apparent nations around the world pledged help and billions in aid. The destructive surge of the sea had been replaced with a well intentioned surge of global support. The ABC’s Indonesia Correspondent Matt Brown has discovered that rebuilding effort has been chaotic and in places very uneven. He meets former merchant banker turned hands-on helper Sarah Henderson who learned quickly not to make the same mistakes as some aid agencies that had constructed homes for non-existent villagers. “When I was designing the houses I though oh how great I’ll give them an inside bathroom, I’ll give them an inside kitchen oh this is going to be wonderful and when they saw the plan they were horrified and they said no, no, no, no they didn’t want the bathroom inside, they didn’t want the kitchen inside and so I think listening is very, very important.”SARAH HENDERSON But Matt Brown’s also discovered – as if it were possible – one very positive consequence of the Boxing Day Tsunami. It served to wash away a divisive, bitter and protracted civil war. It quickly became to clear to everyone from the Indonesian Government to the rank and file of the separatist movement GAM that only peace and cooperation would see Aceh emerge from the rubble of flattened communities. GAM guerrillas put down their weapons, Jakarta pulled back its soldiers, a deal was cut for limited autonomy and former separatists like Nurdin Abdul Rahman took the reins of devastated districts. “The tsunami had alerted the people of Aceh that this is the only chance for betterlife, for peace for Acehnese.”NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN Now though, there are signs the goodwill that followed the Tsunami is giving way to tension and former GAM foot soldiers who now believe Jakarta has welched on its side of the deal and are contemplating a return to their armed push for independence. Elsewhere there are signs of a festering Moslem militancy and Foreign Correspondent has obtained video of the worrying activities of one such group. Riverside fish market 00:00 BROWN: In a busy fish market in Banda Aceh, the catch is in and business is brisk. Once again, the sea sustains this place. On a day like this it’s hard to imagine that just five years ago, the sea razed settlements up and down the coast and almost wiped Banda Aceh off the map. 00:11 Tsunami vision ACEH WOMAN: At first there was an earthquake then bang… bang… like people with traditional weapons… bang… bang… bang. Then I heard one huge explosion, like a bomb! Bang! 00:41 Aceh woman And after that explosion came the tsunami. 01:06 Tsunami vision Music 01:10 BROWN: With terrifying force the tsunami smashed its way inland, flattening vast tracts of Aceh and killing more than 170,000 people. 01:16 River of debris Music 01:25 ACEH WOMAN: We could hear trees crashing and the sea water started to form waves. Behind us we could see a big black wave. 01:33 Aceh woman The water was everywhere - and so high we could only see the top of our house. 01:52 Tsunami vision Music 02:00 Tsunami aftermath 02:05 SARA HENDERSON: [Founder, Building Bridges to the Future] It was just so horrible and I would think about the families, 02:12 Sara Henderson in car the people who might have been here. There was just nothing left, nothing. 02:18 ADF Flight – delivery of aid Music 02:25 BROWN: No sooner had the waves receded than aid poured in – billions of dollars pledged by governments and the public stunned by the scale of the devastation. 02:33 SARA HENDERSON: It’s hard for me to believe 02:49 Brown and Sara in car I had seen what I had seen before, because it’s all so different now.BROWN: Sara Henderson’s a retired 02:52 Sara’s car on road merchant banker based in Jakarta, who first came to Aceh just a month after the tsunami struck.SARA HENDERSON: It was just nothing. I mean all this was nothing. You have to think to yourself that 02:59 Sara in car. Super: Sara Henderson, Founder, Building Bridges to the Future this water here came up 30 feet high moving the speed of an aeroplane. 03:13 Sara’s car on road along coast Music 03:23 BROWN: She felt compelled to help. She got in a car and drove down the coast just as far as she could go - and that brought her here to what remained of Rumpet. 03:30 Rumpet after tsunami Music 03:42 Women of Rumpet SARA HENDERSON: Most of those people’s eyes were dead. I mean they just looked to me like the walking dead. Oh God it was terrible. 03:47 Aceh after tsunami BROWN: Across Aceh, 400,000 people had been left homeless and in this village, little was left standing. 04:00 Post tsunami photos -- Rebuilding So this grandmother, then a sprightly 65, raided her retirement savings and hatched a plan to help the villagers rebuild.SARA HENDERSON: They were in tents in the mud 04:12 Sara and parts of the tents were hanging down and there was garbage all over and it was horrible, it was just horrible. 04:29 Sofyan at house on motor bike. Rose climbs on to back BROWN: Sofyan and his wife Rose escaped with their lives but lost everything else – their baby girl, their house, their family and friends. 04:40 ROSE: When I went up the mountain I looked down to our village. It looked like an ocean. It was all covered with sand and water. 04:59 Rose I wasn’t thinking of just my daughter but of the whole family. 05:06 Sofyan and Rose on bike BROWN: There seemed little hope until the arrival of a complete stranger. With Sara Henderson’s help, Rose and Sofyan built a new home. Eventually they’d start a new family. ROSE: I felt the tsunami had brought us some good after Sara came to our village. 05:13 Rose When Sara came she had a program to build houses so it was like we saw the light. 05:34 Rose in garden BROWN: Sara Henderson quickly learned that providing aid in a meaningful way calls for careful management and plenty of consultation. 05:44 SARA HENDERSON: I think the biggest lesson I learned was to listen. We think our own culture is so great, we try to impose it on other people. 05:54 Sara. Super:Sara Henderson, Founder, Building Bridges to the Future When I was designing the houses, I thought oh how great, I’ll give them an inside bathroom, I’ll give them an inside kitchen – oh this is going to be wonderful! And when they saw the plan they were horrified and they said no, no, no, no, no. They didn’t want the bathroom inside. They didn’t want the kitchen inside. And so I think listening is very, very important. 06:09 BROWN: It’s lucky you asked them in the first place. 06:35 SARA HENDERSON: (laughing) Yes it was, otherwise they would have all had houses they hated which would have been terrible. 06:37 Reconstruction effort. Empty houses BROWN: Just up the road it’s easy to see what mistakes can be made and have been made by others. 06:44 At the height of the reconstruction effort there were more than a thousand aid groups helping here, but some of that goodwill has gone to waste. 06:54 These houses look liveable and yet they’re empty, built for phantom villagers in an uncoordinated building boom and that means in other parts of the province, Acehnese remain homeless. 07:03 Sara walks with Brown around empty houses SARA HENDERSON: What are you going to do? You’re going to force somebody from another village to move into this village? This village won’t let people move into this village. 07:20 BROWN: How did it happen that houses were built for people who don’t even exist? 07:28 SARA HENDERSON: Because nobody bothered to check, nobody ever bothered to verify. When I came here I knew there were 31 people. I could see the people, I could touch the people. I could watch them move into their houses. 07:33 BROWN: Why would this happen? 07:48 SARA HENDERSON: The contractors get rich, the guy who brings in the sand or the suppliers get rich. 07:49 BROWN: It’s a shame. 07:59 SARA HENDERSON: Yep. It’s terrible. Even if you didn’t build houses, the money that was spent on this could have gone into long term development. 08:00 Post tsunami devastation Music 08:11 BROWN: As the enormous and chaotic aid effort rolled out, something else dramatic and fundamental was emerging. 08:22 This after all was a place riven by a 30 year civil war with separatists trying to wrench Aceh from Jakarta and Jakarta fighting hard to hold on. But it was becoming clear that the tsunami that had done so much damage had also washed away the war. 08:30 NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: The tsunami you know had alerted the people of Aceh that 08:54 Nurdin. Super: Nurdin Abdul Rahman, District Chief this is the only chance for a better life, for peace for the Acehnese. 09:02 Nurdin on bike BROWN: His bike is an old Dutch colonial classic, but these days former separatist Nurdin Abdul Rahman is in control here -- the Biruen district on Aceh’s east coast. His fellow travellers include Indonesian businessmen and soldiers ,as well as former rebels. 09:13 It must have required from you a lot of forgiveness. NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: It is nice to forgive and also release the burden in your heart instead of thinking about it all the time. 09:36 Nurdin So just forget it and just to enjoy the reality in your life. 09:48 Graveyard Music 09:56 BROWN: Acehnese have a long history of struggling for independence, dating back to the first Dutch invasion of the 1870s. 10:00 Tilt up to Gas tanks A hundred years later, the fight was with Indonesia’s central government in Jakarta. While the region was rich in oil and gas, its people saw little of the profits. That fuelled discontent and a yearning for independence. 10:08 Guy walking railway line NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: The military seemed to be so harsh. People were afraid to express their opinions 10:29 Nurdin and we found ourselves, like being targeted all the time. 10:36 Mosque Call to prayer 10:42 Nurdin at mosque BROWN: Nurdin Abdul Rahman was one of those rousing the rebellion, and one day after making a passionate speech about injustice at his local mosque, he was arrested.NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: I was treated so badly at that time. They put electric shocks in my body, they 10:51 Nurdin pulled my nails, which was so painful. 11:10 Nurdin at mosque BROWN: When he was released nine years later, the rebel became refugee. He fled Aceh and sought asylum in Australia. 11:15 Nurdin How’d you feel about your life there?NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: Happy. Yeah, I felt secure, except that I was away from my family. 11:30 Aceh beach Music 11:39 BROWN: That separation from loved ones proved too much to bear when the tsunami came. He just had to return and when he did, it was to an Aceh he never thought he’d see. Conflict had given way to cooperation. 11:44 Nurdin at dam construction site The rebel group, GAM, had agreed to end the war and in exchange Jakarta promised autonomy and financial support. 12:02 NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: This used to be a stronghold of GAM before, 12:13 so that’s why we could not construct this dam during the conflict. Without peace, this wouldn’t have been possible. I think our children will live a better life in future. 12:17 Villagers BROWN: Five years on from that dramatic political shift, the district leader now has to deal with festering disappointment. A perception among some Acehnese that Jakarta has welched on its side of the deal.NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: The promise was that they could get land and jobs, but 12:36 Nurdin in car. Super: Nurdin Abdul Rahman, District chief the danger is if you cannot provide them, if you cannot meet the promise, then they become frustrated. Frustration could lead them to extortion and a return to their former rebellious attitude. 12:55 BROWN: And why is that so dangerous? 13:12 NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: Why? Because when you don’t have jobs, anything could happen, anything could happen. 13:14 Coffee shop BROWN: The disappointment is palpable in places like this, a coffee shop frequented by Sofyan and his friends. 13:22 Sofyan and friends at coffee shop He joined the rebels when he was barely a teenager. Now the men who agreed to swap weapons for jobs stay they’re still waiting. 13:32 ACEH MAN #1: Frankly speaking, it should have been a lot better than this. Right now, we don’t feel entirely free. We’re still being squeezed out. All we’re free to do is sit around like this. 13:41 BROWN: They say foreign aid hasn’t made an enduring difference. They feel duped by the Indonesian Government and, worryingly, the talk here is about going back to war. 13:57 ACEH MAN #2: The government hasn’t done anything when it comes to former Free Aceh members. What we’ve received so far came from NGOs -- nothing from the government. 14:08 BROWN: How close are you to going back to the hills and fighting? 14:22 ACEH MAN #3: Well in this situation I think there is more than 50% chance, because at the moment a lot of us feel trapped. If we feel trapped, we just might. 14:26 Spinning mosque tops BROWN: And while political discontent rumbles here and there, we found evidence of religious extremism and worse – Aceh is often called the veranda of Mecca because this is where Islam first came to the Indonesian Archipelago more than 700 years ago. 14:52 Sharia police patrol So it’s no surprise that they take their faith very seriously. Sharia police patrol the streets, banning young lovers from holding hands and enforcing strict sex segregation even in the local salon. 15:13 Police to man in salon SHARIA POLICE: Your mistake is being in the female salon and males are not allowed here. If the salon was for men then only men would be allowed, and no females. 15:29 WOMAN IN SALON: Let me tell you, this man is like one of the family.SHARIA POLICE: I’ll take down the details, in case we meet you another day. 15:41 Zakaria and Mohammed BROWN: And if you push your luck, Sharia punishment can sting. Just ask these two - Zakaria a poor farmer and his friend Mohammed Ali were caught gambling with their neighbours. The stakes were a little more than a dollar, but the men were punished with a public caning. MOHAMMED ALI: The caning embarrassed me. It also traumatised the children. 15:52 Mohammed Some didn’t want to go to school. We had to persuade them to go back. 16:17 Zakaria ZAKARIA: For me, a small person… I do mind a small person like me being caned. But all those people who are corrupt… the corruptors… why don’t they get caned? 16:27 Countryside/ Religious school BROWN: To Islamic radicals Aceh seemed fertile ground, primed for jihad. 16:48 It’s in religious boarding schools known as pesantren that many of the next generation are getting their religious instruction. Schools like this one, The Abode of the Holy Warrior, offer an Islamic education to the rural poor, but we’ve learned the activities here went way beyond rote learning the Koran. 16:58 TEUNGKU MUSLIM: That means a call to jihad. 17:25 Teungku Every religion allows self defence when oppressed. 17:27 Teungku walks with Brown BROWN: This is the school’s leader, Teungku Muslim. We’ve been told he’s considered a dangerous radical, in charge of impressionable young minds. TEUNGKU MUSLIM: People without guns, we can’t kill. 17:35 Teungku Those who we can kill are those who are clearly waging war against Islam – and they carry weapons. 17:51 BROWN: During our brief interview, he admitted he supported killing in the name of Islam, but revealed little more than that. 17:57 FPI training video Music 18:05 BROWN: Some time after we left the school we obtained hard evidence of Teungku Muslim’s activities. 18:09 VIDEO: [Teungku Muslim on loud speaker addressing men] You are the fortress of Aceh. Are you ready?CROWD OF YOUNG MEN: Ready! 18:16 BROWN: He raised this militia under the pretence of fighting Israel in the Holy Land, but his real focus was Aceh. 18:22 VIDEO: [Teungku Muslim on loud speaker addressing men] So you’ll be the first cadres of Aceh’s mujahidin. You’ll be the heroes of the Aceh revolution. Are you ready for a revolution in Aceh?CROWD OF YOUNG MEN: Ready! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! 18:31 BROWN: But some of these men wanted to go even further. They moved on from Teungku Muslim and formed their own terror cell called al Qaeda in Aceh. They’re linked to terrorists responsible for the Bali bombing and the attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta.18:51 Police raid The authorities are on patrol for the radicals and seem to have their measure. Here police are on a raid trying to ferret jihadis out of the jungle. During our assignment they shot a man they were pursuing and two other militants have been killed since. Three police are also dead and the hunt claimed the lives of two civilians. 19:13 Police road block After so much conflict and compromise this latest episode marked an incredible and unwelcome return to bloodshed and suspicion. 19:48 NURDIN ABDUL RAHMAN: These radical groups thought that it was a safe haven for them to be here. It was against the reality. 19:59 Nurdin. Super: Nurdin Abdul Rahman, District chief The understanding the Acehnese have about Islam is different. 20:11 Aceh flag/Peanut farm BROWN: Forget about politics and religion – what most people want to do here is simply get on with their lives. 20:17 Akmal and Gunawan farming It might not look like much, but Akmal Syukri and his friend Gunawan Abdul Manaf are building a new life here. 20:26 GUNAWAN ABDUL MANAF: This work is coming from our heart. 20:38 Gunawan We are willing to work for our success and to deal fairly and calmly with each other. 20:43 Clearing land for farm BROWN: Just a few mountaintops east of Teungku Muslim’s training camp, these former foot soldiers for an independent Aceh are clearing the land to plant peanuts on a government sponsored farm. 20:53 FORMER COMBATANT: Anything related to Aceh now… anything to do with terrorists today, we, the former combatants are ready to co-operate with the military and the police – to hunt for terrorists in Aceh. 21:07 Sara at goat dairy BROWN: And back down the coast near the village of Rumpet, Sara Henderson’s fostering a rural project as well – Aceh’s first goat milk dairy. 21:23 SARA HENDERSON: These were all born here. All the new goats that are in there are pregnant. 21:33 BROWN: Good for business I guess?SARA HENDERSON: Yes it is good for business and they’re so cute! 21:38 Rose with Sara at dairy ROSE: Other organisations helped, but Sara not only gave help, she also was with us all the way. 21:48 Rose Unlike others -- after they gave aid, they left. 21:58 Children feed goats SARA HENDERSON: I think that what is desperately, desperately needed is long term sustainable projects. Train people. Get them on their feet. Get them where they can earn their own living and 22:06 Sara. Super: Sara Henderson, Founder, Building Bridges to the Future you can’t do that in a month, a year, two years – you just can’t. 22:21 Goat farm. Sumiati collecting feed Music 22:29 BROWN: At the goat farm, Sumiati has a growing flock to tend and an obvious stake in the future. She recalls the horror of the tsunami like it was yesterday, now the dairy offers a sense of hope that five years ago, was almost washed away. 22:31 SUMIATI: I thought at the time that we didn’t have a country any more… and that we could not be safe anymore and everything would be ruined. It looked like the end of the world. 22:50 Sumiati feeds goats If we didn’t take on the goats, we wouldn’t have anything. And so far nothing else has been fruitful. Without the goats we’d have nothing to do. 23:16 Children BROWN: Sara Henderson has no plans to close up shop in Aceh, but she will be taking the lessons she learnt here elsewhere. She’s heard the call of desperate need from the other side of the globe and now she’s setting off for Haiti. 23:33 Sara SARA HENDERSON: We’ll do the same thing, go into the outlying areas, the isolated rural areas and see what we can do there.BROWN: Just as far down the road as you can go?SARA HENDERSON: That’s right, that is so true (laughing). 23:52 Aceh beach Music 24:06 Reporter: Matt BrownCamera: David AndersonEditor: Simon Brynjolffssen Producer: Mavourneen Dineen 24:22