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.