Thu, 28 Sep 2000

127 families of transmigrants face uncertainty

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): As many as 127 families from Aceh, who had to leave the restive town for security reasons, are facing uncertainty in West Sumatra.

The families, supposed to be resettled in the Silaut VI resettlement area in the Pesisir Selatan regency, have yet to be properly handled. The local administration seems to be unprepared to receive them.

West Sumatra provincial administration spokesman Zulkhaidir said on Wednesday that funding was the main constraint.

"We are trying to do our best to help them. We are responsible for their fate here."

Zulkhaidir did not say how much money had been set aside by the administration for the resettlement program.

The families, migrants who had spent years in Aceh, are now being housed in temporary shelters in the Silaut VI resettlement area, some 300 kilometers from the West Sumatra capital of Padang.

They have yet to get plots of land to cultivate and no houses have been made available for them. Many of them have been forced to live with relatives and work for a tea plantation belonging to PT Hefina Niaga.

According to Article 28 of government Regulation No. 42/1973, each transmigrant family is entitled to two hectares of land, 1.75 hectares for agriculture and 0.25 hectares for housing in resettlement areas.

Meanwhile the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) said that Indonesia now has about one million internally displaced people, driven from their homes by sectarian conflicts, separatist struggles and natural disasters.

PMI chief and former finance minister Mar'ie Muhammad said that to cope with the growing flood of displaced people, the government needs to set up a national commission on refugees.

Mar'ie made the suggestion after receiving a financial donation from a Jakarta-based newspaper for victims of this year's earthquake in Bengkulu and three ambulances from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the news agency said.

The commission, he said, could be independent, with members representing non-governmental organizations, volunteers and the government. It could handle and coordinate aid.

Previously released government figures have shown that more than half a million people have been driven from their homes by months of sectarian conflict in the Maluku islands.

Another estimated 130,000 people driven from the former Indonesian province of East Timor are still living in camps in East Nusa Tenggara. Ethnic and religious violence have also driven thousands more from their homes in Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Without giving a complete breakdown of the figures Mar'ie said that the one million displaced people were now scattered over 14 provinces.

PMI, as a humanitarian organization, would continue to channel domestic as well as international relief aid to those who are victims of natural disasters or social conflicts, he said. (28/sur/byg)