Deadline to deal with refugees extended
The Jakarta Post, Ambon
The Maluku administration has extended the deadline for resolving the province's refugee problem to the end of the year following its failure to meet the Sept. 15 deadline, an official said on Tuesday.
The new deadline was disclosed by the head of Maluku province's Social Services Office, Chris Hehanussa, who said the administration had worked hard to address the problem since 2001 but was finding it difficult.
Currently, he said, 15,788 families were living in various makeshift camps for displaced persons in the city and were still waiting to be relocated or sent back to their hometowns.
He cited a number of problems, including inaccurate data on the number of refugees and limited funds, as the reasons for the administration's failure to resettle the refugees.
"Hopefully, by the end of 2005, the refugee problem will be solved," Chris told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, adding that the central government had told 12 provinces with refugees living in camps to solve the matter by the end of the year at the latest.
This is not the first time the deadline to deal with refugees in the conflict-torn province has been changed by the provincial administration. It was moved back when the province was under former Insp. Gen. Sinyo Harry Sarundajang, who is currently the North Sulawesi governor, and again under governor Karel Albert Ralahalu.
The initial deadline was set by Sinyo for December 2002, but no significant progress had been made by 2003.
When Karel took office, the deadline was set for April 2004 but was extended to Sept. 15 this year. With the refugees remaining in camps, the administration has been forced to move the deadline back yet again.
Chris said there were 15,788 refugees families in regencies and cities throughout Maluku. The province, he said, had been promised Rp 170 billion (US$17 million) by the Ministry of Social Services to send the refugees back home or relocate them.
He said that out of the Rp 170 billion, Rp 61 billion had been disbursed to the Maluku provincial administration in August and the remaining money would be directly delivered by Minister of Social Services Bachtiar Chamsyah on Sept. 19.
But with an increase in fuel prices inevitable, he fears the allocated budget will not be enough since the higher fuel prices will affect the cost of building materials needed to build houses for the refugees.
"Prices on the local market have increased and this will certainly affect the budget to build houses for refugees," he said.
The deputy speaker of the Maluku provincial council, Jhon Mailoa, blamed the repeated deadline extension for the lack of valid data.
"We have a special committee to deal with refugees, but we've discovered that its numbers vary from those registered with the administration," he said, without giving details of the numbers.
He also advised the provincial administration not to completely transfer responsibility for the refugees to regental or municipal administrations.
"The refugee problem should be addressed by both by the provincial and regental/municipal administrations," Jhon said.
Chris said his office had no valid data on the real number of refugees but his office and the central government would allocate money for 15,788 refugee families.
"That's our agreement with the central government because no one knows the official number of refugees. Only God knows. We won't reregister them because that wouldn't solve the problem," he said.