Govt seizes NGO vehicles, aid for Aceh

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

At least 60 expensive cars have allegedly been smuggled into the country in a 250-container relief aid shipment bound for disaster victims in Aceh and Nias, and were siezed by Belawan Port authorities, an official said on Wednesday.

Cerah Bangun from the Belawan customs office said the vehicles and the containers had to be confiscated because they did not have appropriate documents approved by the trade ministry.

The cars, he said, were sent in containers along with the relief aid from overseas. The cars, he added, included Mercedes Benz and Toyota Land Cruisers and were sent under the names of relief groups, including UNICEF, Solidaritas Indonesia and Walubi.

"The strange thing is, it's been a week now, but none of them (the organizations) have come to inquire about the containers or the vehicles. But if they want to take possession, we can't allow it since the cars don't have proper documents," Cerah Bangun told The Jakarta Post in Belawan.

The port's customs office also apprehended 250 other containers with relief aid bound for Aceh and Nias, since the containers had inside them imported products such as rice and sugar, which require special permission from the government. However, an officer said they would still release the food aid at some point, so it could be distributed to disaster victims in Aceh and Nias, but not until they received governmental permission.

Cerah added that another 400 containers of relief aid bound for Aceh or Nias was also held up at the port.

"This relief aid can actually be distributed right away since they need no permit, but there's no one to distribute it," he claimed, while adding that the 400 containers mostly comprised crucial life-saving items such as food, milk, medicine, hospital supplies and tents.

He said that the port authority had tried to contact the government's disaster coordination post to help distribute the relief aid but to no avail. "It's sad that the aid containers have to pile up in the port, while many disaster victims are in need," he said.

In stark contrast to the port official's claims however, secretary of the North Sumatra disaster coordination post, Edy Aman Saragih, said that a lot of relief aid from Belawan port had been distributed to Aceh and Nias, but that the hundreds of containers sitting at the port were being held up because they were still awaiting for governmental permission before they could distribute to the victims.

"It's difficult to get the relief aid from the port because it requires a special permit from the Ministry of Trade. Actually, we want to immediately distribute the relief aid to those in need," Edy said, and added that there were 35 other containers from Karachi, Pakistan, which could not yet be distributed due to the absence of permits.

He said the problem would be discussed during a national coordination meeting scheduled for Thursday in Jakarta.

"A team from our post has left to Jakarta today (Wednesday), hopefully the relief aid problem can be solved and can reach the victims," he explained.