15.01.05

� 15.30: Armed contact between TNA/GAM and TNI troops at Buket Drien, Sputh Idi , East Acheh, no casualties reported o­n GAM side. No information available o­n TNI side. [source: local GAM commander].

� 20.45: Armed contact at Paya Gaboh, o­ne TNA/GAM fighter, M. Saleh ben Yacob, 24, from Blang village, Siguci Tunong, was killed, 1 M16 captured by TNI. Both incidents took place 8 km from Acheh-Medan trunk road. [source: local GAM commander].

16.01.05

� 15.40: Armed contact occurred at Seuneubok Bayu � Bandar Alam, 15 km from Acheh-Medan trunk road. Aswandi, 27, TNA soldier from Matang Tublok village, was killed. [source: local GAM commander].

� Nasir bin Abu Bakar, 20, farmer, South Idi, arrested by TNI Kosrad 330 based at Blang Rambong o­n 11.11.04 in Idi, was found dead today with gunshot wound. His motorcycle taken when arrested is now used by a soldier of the base. [source: local contact]

Date: 20 Jan 2005
Banda Aceh, Indonesia (dpa) - More than three weeks after the devastating tsunami pulverised the Indonesian province of Aceh, some communities have yet to receive any aid, the Red Cross said Thursday."There are small pockets of communities that have not received international assistance as of yet,'' said Langdon Greenhalgh, programme coordinator for Banda Aceh for the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.The Red Cross official declined to put a figure o­n the number of communities without aid, but stressed that the small communities along the west coast consisted of around 100 people each."Those are the areas that we are trying to target and are trying to get to as rapidly as possible. We are mobilizing the support that is necessary to serve them. It is simply a question of access,'' Greenhalgh said.

Present Secretariat

Coordinating Officer- Lucia V Jayaseelan [email protected]

Programme Officer- Jin Young Park (Jini) [email protected]

Programme Officer- Lee Siew Hwa [email protected]

Documentation Officer- Deepa Bharathi [email protected]

Administration Officer- Angela Zondermann [email protected]

Administration Assistant- Vacant

Finance Consultant- Leong Mee Nan (Mei Yun) [email protected]

Finance Officer- Ratchanee Kularppana [email protected]

On 29 October 2004, three executives of a recently formed union at MSP Sportswear in Thailand were dismissed. Since then, the remaining nine executives in the plant have been subjected to constant harassment and have been prevented from carrying out their union activities. In the period since the dismissal there have been several meetings between the union executives, the local organization supporting them (CLIST), government officials and the main buyer, Nike. So far this has not resulted in any real progress, even though the conciliator from the Labour and Welfare department personally advised that the fired unionexecutives should be rehired. The other buyer, the French company Decathlon, has reportedly sent an audit team, but has not made direct contact with CLIST or the union.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) secretary-general G Rajasekaran was ready to step down from his post but changed his mind upon learning of N Siva Subramaniam's nomination as a challenger for the key post.

"Personally, I had already told my supporters that I was stepping down. But the moment Siva was nominated for the secretary-general post, I just had to reconsider my decision," he said, referring to the recently-concluded election. "My supporters demanded to know if I really wanted to hand over the MTUC affairs to someone widely perceived as a government spokesperson. I couldn't abandon ship... not just yet."