AG's Office tackles legal issues in Aceh

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government said on Monday it would use some unconventional methods to cope with post-tsunami legal issues related to citizen documentation as well as for banking and court systems in Aceh and North Sumatra.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said that a special policy on the legal matters would be enacted for a smooth transition back to normalcy in the ravaged province.

The government will set up a special body or legal desk under the Attorney General's Office, to deal with legal problems facing the tsunami victims who lost identity cards, documents for their land, bank account information, tax numbers and other items, he added.

"We plan to gather data from the Ministry of Home Affairs that was collected in 2003 for the preparations of last year's general elections, so we can retrieve the personal identification of the Aceh people," Hamid said.

Separately on Monday, National Agrarian Agency (BPN) head Lutfi Nasoetion promised that his office would make duplicates of land title documents, many of which were swept away by the Dec. 26 tidal waves in coastal areas of northern Sumatra, free of charge.

He called on the tsunami victims who lost certificates of their land ownership to apply for new documents.

"The process will take time and the new certificates will be given at no cost," Lutfi told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II for home and agrarian affairs.

He said the BPN presumed that only 10 percent of the documents stored in the agrarian offices in Aceh and in North Sumatra were damaged or destroyed during the disaster.

However, 100 percent of land ownership certificates belonging to people in the tsunami-hit areas vanished during the devastating disaster, he claimed.

In order to avoid disputes in the future, Lutfi urged the Aceh provincial administration to freeze all land trade activities in the tsunami-affected areas.

Also on Monday, President director of Bank Nasional Indonesia (BNI) Sigit Pramono said his bank would work closely with customers who lost personal identification cards or bank books to apply for new documents and to withdraw money.

"We will still serve those with limited identification. We have a set of procedures to verify the customers's identity by asking them basic, personal questions, such as full name, address and account balance, and requesting more detailed information that only the customers themselves would know," he added.

According to Sigit, customers in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, the cities hardest hit by the disaster, have already started making cash withdrawals.

Customers with outstanding loans will be classified into two categories according to the losses they have suffered. The loans of those clients who have died, will be written off by the bank. For those who are still alive, but have lost property or their livelihoods, the amounts owed will be cut.

Sigit also urged the government to discuss the steps needed to deal with the problems of beneficiaries considered to be entitled to withdraw funds deposited by their family members killed in the tsunami.

An identification system should be developed within the next few weeks to ease the banking withdrawal procedures for the bereaved relatives, so they can get access to the deposited funds, he said.

Sigit added that any unclaimed bank accounts would eventually be deposited into the state's coffers.

Meanwhile, Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, a legal expert from the University of Indonesia, said a special court should be established in Aceh to deal with current or pending court cases after many documents, witnesses, suspects, prosecutors and judges were killed.

If deemed necessary, the government should deploy judges from other provinces to support this process, she said.