Aceh needs aid for schools: UN team

Aceh needs aid for schools: UN team

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Sigli

Aceh is in dire need of financial aid to help restore educational
and health facilities damaged during the 26-year bloody conflict,
according to a UN team.

Steven Allen who led a three-day UN mission in the province,
said in a press conference here on Wednesday that foreign
countries committed to the reconstruction program in post-war
Aceh should provide donations to repair hundreds of health
centers and hospitals and thousands of school buildings damaged
during the conflict.

The UN team representing WHO, OCHA, UNDP, Unicef, WFP and IOM
made a three-day visit to Aceh Pidie, one of several regencies
badly hit by the conflict, to get first-hand information from
locals on their urgent needs in the social rehabilitation program
following the signing of the Cessation of Hostilities agreement
on Dec. 9.

"With the UN mission, we have obtained first-hand information
and the real picture of the social condition in the province.
This will be useful to give recommendations to donor countries
on what should they do to help the Acehnese live a normal life,"
said Allen.

The joint team, which arrived in the city on Dec. 16, found
that no less than 69 elementary and high school buildings were
burned down in Pidie regency between 1999-2002, causing hundreds
of students to stop going to school. Hundreds of others were
attended classes in mosques and under trees. In addition, many
teachers have fled the area while others were killed.

The UN team was here at the request of some 30 foreign
countries, including Japan and United States, which committed in
the recent meeting in Tokyo to help reconstruct Aceh.

Pidie is the regency worst hit by the conflict besides Aceh
Besar, North Aceh and East Aceh. The regencies are strongholds of
the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

An elementary school student carrying a school bag as part of
Unicef's donation to the school in Lamchot village told the team
that the building still had three rooms where more than 150
students had classes every day.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun
Kuntjoro-Jakti said he along with Minister of Regional
Resettlement and Infrastructure Soenarno would make an inventory
of damaged facilities and infrastructure that needed to be
rehabilitated to help stimulate the province's economic growth.

"We are making a database on bridges and roads to be repaired
and plans to develop new roads to end the isolation of remote
areas. In a short time, the provincial capital of Banda Aceh will
have rail transportation and a fish auction center will be
established in Sabang port to improve local fishermen's social
welfare," he said.

"With the gradually improving situation, the development of
industrial zones in the province and the presence of raw
materials will certainly attract foreign investors to invest in
the province," he said.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said he
would give priority to the handling of hundreds of thousands of
Acehnese people displaced due to the conflict.

"Hundreds of thousands of the displaced inside Aceh must be
returned to their homes or resettled in more secure areas.
Besides, thousands of Acehnese people are still taking refuge in
North Sumatran areas bordering Aceh and they should be also
brought to Aceh," he said.