Associated Press

Banda Aceh, January 9:

The UN food agency said today that the security of its tsunami relief operations was not threatened by gunfire near its compound in Indonesia, as an Australian ship steamed toward Sumatra laden with equipment and aid for the survivors of the December 26 disaster.

A tropical downpour lashed Banda Aceh airport today, turning the major hub for aid supplies to Aceh province into a muddy mess and soaking piles of cardboard boxes of aid sitting on the tarmac.

Indonesian police blamed the shooting in Banda Aceh on separatist rebels. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) was unable to confirm that rebels from the Free Aceh Movement were involved in the shooting. “We can’t verify that the GAM was involved in the incident in the middle of the night,” said Mike Huggins, a World Food Programme spokesman. Joel Boutroue, head of the UN relief effort in Aceh, said he didn’t believe aid workers were the target of the shooting. “We were told by guards that it was probably one person shooting a few rounds and that was it,” he said.

“There was no exchange of gunfire. We were here. There were about 15 rounds fired off. It all came from one person, a soldier or a police officer,” said another UN official who requested anonymity. Indonesia’s military today said it had reports that separatist rebels were infiltrating refugee camps in Aceh and warned relief workers to take extra care.

Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, two hand grenades hurled in a rare clash between Christians and Hindus killed at least three people and injured 37 others in an eastern region where aid workers are helping tsunami victims. No relief workers were hurt in either incident, officials said. The WFP is readying to feed up to 1 million survivors for six months in Indonesia and a further 750,000 in Sri Lanka, the group’s Executive Director James Morris said yesterday.