Kalla unveils blueprint for Aceh reconstruction
Kalla unveils blueprint for Aceh reconstruction
Agencies, Jakarta
Vice President Jusuf Kalla presented Aceh community leaders on
Saturday with the draft blueprint for the reconstruction of the
tsunami-hit area, marking the end of the emergency relief phase
in Aceh exactly three months after the disaster.
"The emergency relief phase is now over. All processes in Aceh
will be returned to the normal processes," Kalla was quoted by
Agence France Presse as saying in Banda Aceh after he submitted
the 12-volume final draft of the Aceh reconstruction masterplan
during a special ceremony.
He explained that the government would consult with the
Acehnese people before incorporating the blueprint in a
presidential decree and establishing an executive agency in
April.
"The governor will discuss it with officials and the people
here," Kalla said, adding that the masterplan would be
implemented over five years.
The masterplan is contained in 12 volumes. One is dedicated to
the overall aspects of reconstruction, while the remaining 11
volumes address specific aspects of the rebuilding process.
It covers the rebuilding of society and livelihoods, restoring
the economy, rebuilding the infrastructure and restoring the
capacity of local institutions.
Some 220,000 people are either dead or missing and hundreds of
thousands of survivors have been homeless since the tsunami hit
the province following a massive earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004.
Foreign troops and humanitarian agencies immediately came to
the rescue, working together with the Indonesian authorities and
local relief workers to help the survivors and recover dead
bodies.
Kalla thanked the foreign donors and institutions for their
assistance, and assured them that they could continue performing
relief work in Aceh.
"Every program, project will continue," Kalla said while
reiterating the government's promise that reconstruction would be
carried out in an open and transparent manner.
The Vice President was accompanied by Minister of Justice and
Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin, Minister of Finance Jusuf Anwar,
Minister of Transportation Hatta Radjasa, Minister of Manpower
and Transmigration Fahmi Idris, State Minister for the
Environment Rachmat Witoelar, and Deputy Speaker of the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) Aksa Mahmud.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab told
the Vice President that there were as many as 514,150 displaced
persons in the province as some 100,000 families had lost their
homes to the tsunami, Antara reported.
Alwi said that the government would assess the resources and
capabilities of the foreign aid agencies currently in Aceh over
the next one month to decide on how they could contribute to the
reconstruction work in an effective manner.
"After one month, we will decide. We don't want duplication.
We don't want NGOs doing the same work. There should be a
division of labor, specialization, according to the capacity and
capabilities of each NGO," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The government initially set March 26 as the deadline for
foreign humanitarian relief agencies to leave the province, with
the government saying it would then be time to focus on the
reconstruction work. But the government later extended the
deadline for between another one and two months.
Earlier on Friday, the Indonesian Military (TNI) officially
ended a three-month project rebuilding the main road between
Banda Aceh and Meulaboh , which was badly damaged by the tsunami.
During the work, the TNI rebuilt the 272-kilometer (170-mile)
road between the two cities as well as 35 out of 41 bridges that
had been brought down by the massive Indian Ocean tidal wave.
The completion of the road reopened access to the hard-hit
towns of Calang, Teunom and Meulaboh.
"We hope that by opening this road, we can help people from
isolated villages all along the west coast. Hopefully, what we
have done here will be useful to the community," TNI chief Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto said in a speech to about 5,800 soldiers who
had worked on the job.