Homes remain elusive for Acehnese on Idul Fitri

Homes remain elusive for Acehnese on Idul Fitri

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

It was almost dusk on Sunday, but a group of children at the
refugee camp were still playing outside despite the mud after a
heavy downpour in Banda Aceh.

It has been 10 months since the tsunami struck, but around 400
displaced people in the camp at Gano village in Lambaro Skep
district in the Aceh capital are still living in tents, most of
which are torn.

The problems facing the people here is not confined to wornout
tents, but also the fact that the sea often floods their tents,
which stand only a couple of dozen meters away from the sea,
while the dam that used to keep the sea at bay, and was destroyed
by the tsunami, has not been rebuilt.

"We're still stuck in these tents and will spend our Idul Fitri
here. There are no preparations whatsoever for the holiday," a
youth, Mukhlis, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Mukhlis and other Gano residents are bracing for the Islamic
holiday, which falls on Wednesday and Thursday. To date, there
are thousands of tsunami victims in the province who are still
residing in tents as their houses have not been rebuilt or
construction of their shelters has yet to be completed.

According to the Aceh Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Agency (BRR), there will be around 10,000 houses built by the end
of the year. The work is being funded by international non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) and donor countries.

The number is less than 10 percent of the 110,000 houses
required by the some 500,000 people displaced by the Dec. 26
disaster.

An independent research center, the Aceh Institute, has
predicted that the BRR will only be able to build 17,812 houses,
a little over a half of its initial target of 30,000 houses in
2005.

"Up until now, only 5,820 houses have been built," Lukman Age,
the Institute's head of research and analysis, said on Saturday.

The problem, he said, was not only the insufficient supply of
building materials, but funding as well since there were two
major donors that had yet to realize their pledges: the Multi
Donor Trust Fund Aceh Nias World Bank (MDTFANS-World Bank) and
the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The MDTFANS-World Bank had promised to fund the construction
of 25,000 houses while the ADB had sought to build 21,250 houses.

"The BRR has done a pretty good job in coordinating the
construction work. But it has failed to coordinate the
development supposedly funded by the 'big boys'," Lukman was
quoted by Antara as saying.

The money from MDTFANS, he said, had still not been disbursed.

The ADB, meanwhile, was still revising its program, with the
National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) saying that the ADB
has not met the requirement of proposing house construction
projects based on the community-driven development concept.

"A delay to the major programs will slow the process of
rehabilitation and reconstruction in Aceh," Lukman said.

The refugees will have to spend their idul Fitri in tents for
the first time, with no holiday meals, let alone new clothes.

"This is just so sad. The aid is not as much as it used to. We
now only depend on the government's subsistence allowance," said
Farida, a refugee in the Gue Gajah area of Banda Aceh.

With only three days to go to Idul Fitri, the allowances have
yet to be disbursed. The government had promised to provide Rp
90,000 (around US$9) to each person to enable them to celebrate
the holiday.

Some donor countries and NGOs have given "holiday gifts" for
the refugees, such as the United Arab Emirates which donated a
total of US$160,000. A Turkish NGO, Pasiad, meanwhile, has donated
2,000 boxed meals every day during the fasting month.