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Denise Furnell on the Indonesian Tsunami

Denise Furnell, safety and security adviser for the International Rescue Committee, talks to CSO about security challenges in Indonesia a year after one of the worst natural disasters in history

Denise Furnell, a native Australian, was until recently stationed in Bandeh Aceh, Indonesia, one of the areas hardest hit by and still recovering from 2004's devastating tsunami. She is responsible for the safety and security of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) relief workers in regions as far-flung as Uganda and the Northern Caucasus. Furnell spoke with CSO Senior Editor Scott Berinato about what was happening on the ground in Bandeh Aceh and the overall cultural challenges of implementing a security program in a dangerous area.

CSO: What were your security and safety responsibilities when you arrived in Bandeh Aceh, five months after the tsunami hit?

Denise Furnell: The Aceh province is interesting because when the tsunami hit it was still a conflict zone within Indonesia. The rebels of the area declared a cease-fire immediately after the tsunami, so that helped. But you've still got a lot of combatants around, so we were working in a sort of a post-conflict zone. For security purposes we were determining what sort of distances were safe to travel from our four field offices in Aceh. We had to get procedures in place, get staff updated so they knew, for example, that we wouldn't travel at night. The earthquake hazard, while normally categorized as a safety issue, became a real security one because we were getting five to 10 earthquakes over 5 on the Richter scale every week. So your buildings are shaking, you're getting more cracks in your buildings, and you've got the repeat psychological trauma on not only the locals; the international team was [also] starting to feel the effects and nervousness of the situation.

Are certain security events, such as looting or lawlessness, predictable following natural disasters, and can you prepare for them?

Based on the demographic of the affected population, it's reasonably predictable. Aceh consists of small, reasonably self-sufficient subsistence fisherman and farmers. They're highly self-reliant with a strong community spirit. That sort of profile suggests you probably will get less lawlessness, because the community will pull together. If you face another situation, like Katrina [the IRC is on the ground in New Orleans], you've got an urban environment where people are much more reliant on existing community infrastructure provided by someone else. So if they're sick, they want to be able to get to the doctor. That situation, to me, suggests you are more likely to get lawlessness.

The Pakistan earthquake, that was similar to Aceh in that it affected small, self-sufficient communities. The lawlessness really only showed up when we did distribution of shelter or blankets or food. You start to get a little bit of rioting from crowds, but it's only a clamor for goods, as opposed to someone really wanting to steal a truck or attack the helicopter. It's more about, "We really want the goods. We're desperate."