EU to help refugees in Maluku

EU to help refugees in Maluku

Muhammad Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The European Union (EU) will donate funds to help refugees in
Maluku and North Maluku to return home or resettle to other
areas.

The funds will be disbursed soon after the two provinces
submit their proposal to the EU headquarters in Belgium, said a
local official.

Ambon mayor M.J. Papilaya said on Saturday that the proposal
would be submitted before June 27, and the funds would be around
three million euros to help both provinces handle the refugees.

"This is the result of a visit of several EU ambassadors to
the city on Sept. 8, 2003. According to unofficial information
from the UK, the aid is only the first stage," said Papilaya.

He added that a staffer at EU would assist officials of the
two provinces in preparing the proposal so that it would meet EU
standards. This staff member will take it to the EU headquarters
before June 27.

Papilaja expressed optimism that the EU would disburse funds
to both provinces, which were rocked by sectarian conflicts.

Tens of thousands of Muslims and Christians were killed in the
sectarian conflict that began in 1999, and hundreds of thousands
of others fled to other provinces in Indonesia for fear that they
might become victims of the conflict.

The conflict subsided last year, but tough tasks await, while
local people and the government of the two provinces are bracing
themselves for postconflict rehabilitation.

Papilaja said that the EU ambassadors had acknowledged that
the conflict had impinged on the lives of Maluku and North Maluku
people, and they deserved foreign aid.

Aside from that, he cited another factor that had compelled
the EU to disburse funds to the two provinces.

"Ambon already had contact and social and economic cooperation
with Vlisingen province in the Netherlands. This is an advantage
for us, because the EU requires that a foreign province has to
have relations or cooperation with a province in the EU, in order
to be eligible for EU aid," said Papilaja.

Separately, Governor of Maluku Karel Albert Ralahalu
acknowledged that the local government still had to deal with
36,000 refugee families in the province.

He said that the province would not shoulder the burden alone,
because the Ministry of Social Affairs had released a planned
project list (DIP) recently, covering 10,000 refuge families.

"However, we must keep on working to handle the remaining
26,000 families," he said.

Karel will meet with the minister of finance on April 5 to
discuss the disbursement of postconflict recovery funds for both
Maluku and North Maluku.

As stipulated by Special Presidential Instruction No. 6/2003,
Maluku and North Maluku, two conflict areas in Indonesia, are
entitled to the funds. The total amount allocated to the province
for 2004 is Rp 1,02 trillion (US$1.2 billion).

"After the meeting, we hope the funds will be disbursed as
soon as possible because both provinces need the funds badly for
reconstruction and rehabilitation in the postconflict situation,"
Karel said.