House OKs funds Aceh military operation

House OKs funds Aceh military operation

Tony Hotland and Rendi Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite criticizing the government for irregularities in its new
budget proposal for military operations in Aceh, the House of
Representatives approved new funds to support some 35,000
soldiers on duty in the province.

The money will come from the Ministry of Defense's emergency
fund because this is the quickest way to disburse the funds, a
member of the House budgetary committee, Happy Bone Zulkarnaen,
said on Friday.

"It is not possible to get the funds from the revised 2005
state budget, which has already been declared final. Another
option is to take the money from the 2006 state budget, but that
is still a long way off," he said.

The defense ministry has Rp 2 trillion (US$206.18 million)
stashed in its emergency fund, which had been designated to cover
operations in the disputed offshore Ambalat oil block in the
Sulawesi Sea.

The government has deployed soldiers to maintain security in
the offshore area, the ownership of which is being contested by
Indonesia and Malaysia.

In a letter to the House, the Ministry of Defense requested an
additional Rp 530.27 billion to cover the costs of military
operation in Aceh from July to December.

In response to the letter, the House budgetary committee
earlier said the ministry should have included the request in the
revised 2005 state budget, which was approved last week.

During normal conditions, all funds must be disbursed from the
state budget. The government changed the status of Aceh in May to
state of civil administration from a state of civil emergency.

"It is up to the mechanisms between the Ministry of Defense
and the Ministry of Finance as to which option they want to take.
I suppose the quickest option is to get the funds from the
emergency fund since they can be disbursed at anytime," said
Happy.

He said the funds should be mainly spent on fulfilling the
nutritional needs of soldiers in Aceh rather than on military
equipment.

The defense ministry, however, said it wanted to disburse 60
percent of the total funds to support security operations rather
than to procure supplies for soldiers.

Happy also reiterated a call for the ministry to present an
accountability report for trillions of rupiah already disbursed
to finance military operations in Aceh to quell the Free Aceh
Movement since May 2003.

"We already asked the defense minister to do so because the
use of the funds has never been reported to us," he said, adding
that the House should set the parameters for judging whether the
operations were a success.

The parameters, said Happy, could include how many rebel areas
have been conquered, how many weapons seized, or how many rebels
surrendered.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the military operation would
be maintained despite the ongoing peace talks with the rebels to
ensure reconstruction projects in the tsunami-hit province to run
undisturbed.

Indonesian government officials and rebels group's negotiators
are scheduled to resume talks in Helsinki starting from July 10,
despite the House's objection.