Displaced Acehnese live with their relatives

Displaced Acehnese live with their relatives

A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

Nini, 35, fought to break through the crowd of people attempting
to board a large boat that would transport refugees to Banda
Aceh.

She failed to get through, but she wasn't discouraged. She
intended to try again the next day.

On way her back to her camp on a hill in Calang town, Aceh
Jaya regency, she met a military police officer who she knew.

The officer suggested that she go down to the Calang port at
night, as fewer people tried to board at that time.

"With the help of the military police officer I was able to
board the boat, and I was so grateful to him," said Nini, a part-
time teacher in Calang that was devastated by the tsunami.

The boat, one of several provided by the Aceh Jaya regental
government for Calang refugees, reached Banda Aceh on Wednesday
last week, a day after it left Calang.

Upon arriving in Banda Aceh, Nini, who lost her father and
three siblings in the disaster, spent a few days in a refugee
camp in the Lham Pulo area until her relatives picked her up and
took her to their house in the Keutapang subdistrict, near Banda
Aceh.

Nini is among the approximately 200,000 displaced persons
living outside refugee camps throughout Aceh. The refugees are
not recorded by the government as they are living with relatives
or friends outside of the camps. Consequently, they do not
receive regular aid supplies as the government's disaster
mitigation team is still focusing on getting aid into camps.

Only a few families said that they were receiving food aid
from the government. One of them, a resident in Keutapang, is
accommodating some 50 people from eight families in his house.
All of them are relatives.

"The government channeled food aid to our neighborhood head
and the head distributed the aid to us," said the resident, who
requested anonymity. Since the Dec. 26 disaster, the families had
been given 15 kilograms of rice and several packs of instant
noodles.

Siti Rohana, a resident in Keutapang subdistrict, said that
she was not only accommodating her extended family hit by the
disaster but also several other people in need of shelter. After
a few days, however, they left her house for refugee camps set up
by the government and volunteer groups.

The head of the government's disaster mitigation task force in
Aceh, Alwi Shihab, said earlier that he welcomed anyone wishing
to move from out from their relatives houses to go to refugee
camps.

He said the government was now building 24 relocation centers
complete with clean water, sanitation facilities, health
facilities and a community hall for refugees currently staying at
temporary camps across the province.

"Anyone is welcome to come to these centers," he said.