Indonesian tsunami survivors have begun moving into wooden barracks in Aceh province, the first of tens of thousands of refugees who will leave their tents for the hastily built encampments.

Military trucks and government buses on Tuesday dropped off hundreds of people made homeless by the December 26 tsunami at seven long barracks built near a river on the outskirts of the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Many looked bewildered as they got down from the trucks. Parents clutched their children and everything they owned, as well as sacks of rice. Officials gave rooms first to families. A loud speaker played the call to Muslim prayers.

More than 400,000 displaced people are scattered around the province in the north of Sumatra island as a result of the tsunami, which left 240,000 people dead or listed as missing.

While survivors were being moved into their new shelters six weeks after the disaster, official figures showed that more than 500 bodies are still being recovered every day.

Of all the challenges facing Indonesia after the disaster, few require as much sensitivity as relocating people from tented camps into semi-permanent shelters where they will live for up to two years before better housing can be built.

The government has said the relocations would be voluntary, but a Western aid worker observing the process on Tuesday expressed concern at Indonesian military involvement.

"While on paper the government says the people have choice, soldiers arrive and say 'let's go'. How do you say no to a man with a machine gun," said the aid worker, who declined to be named.

Many of those moving were only told on Monday night, the aid worker said.

Indonesian police guarded the entrance of the encampment, with pockets of soldiers armed with M-16 rifles inside.

"AT LEAST WE CAN CALL IT HOME"

Each barrack has around 12 rooms, corrugated iron roofs and separate sheds for bathrooms. Electricity has been installed in the one-room compartments, which have thin walls and a single window and door.

Ratnawati, a 40-year-old woman who lost her husband and two of her three children to the waves, said she was happy to move because life in the tents was poor, especially during rain.

"Even though conditions are like this, we can at least call it home," Ratnawati said, before breaking into sobs when she talked about her dead children.

She said officials had told her she would be here for at least two years but others thought the stay would be shorter.

"We estimate around a year. But if they want to stand on their own feet, it can be sooner than that," Aceh deputy governor Azwar Abubakar told reporters.

Besides concerns over possible coercion in moving refugees, aid workers worry about how long refugees will stay in the barracks and what job opportunities they will have.

United Nations and government officials hope many will choose to return to their old areas and rebuild.

Inside a community hall at the new camp, an Acehnese ceremony was performed as three refugee representatives sat on a wooden floor before offerings of flowers, sticky rice and sacred water.

A community elder dressed in a black Muslim cap blessed them by placing sticky rice behind their ears.

Officials have said 803 barracks would be built by the government by March 15, which could accommodate 9,730 families. Of that number, 273 have been built so far.

The camps have been built along internationally accepted guidelines for sanitation, communal kitchens, places of worship, and other essentials and will be managed by the refugees themselves, officials have said.

(China Daily February 16, 2005)