Deadline to deal with refugees extended

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.