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.