Govt seizes NGO vehicles, aid for Aceh

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.