Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the boss of Indonesia's new REDD agency, was previously in charge of rebuilding Aceh after the tsunami.

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Aceh, the tsunami's epicentre, had huge problems because the destruction was worst there, the province had been riven by rebellion in the 1990s and 180 different NGOs were operating there at one point.

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Berman also covered the Indian Ocean tsunami from Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and the steroids scandal in American sports.

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The government has clearly learnt some lessons from the much larger earthquake off the coast of north Sumatra in December 2004, which triggered a huge tsunami and killed more than 150, 000 people in Aceh province and another 60, 000 in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean.

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In less than 12 hours the Tsunami had finally reached the coast of Africa from its point of origin in Banda Aceh.

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