Local govts ordered to create relief funds

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto ordered all provincial, regency and mayoralty administrations yesterday to set up disaster relief funds in their budgets.

The special funds would speed up efforts to help victims of natural disasters, he said.

Soeharto said preventive measures and good anticipation would help reduce the number of victims and their suffering.

"All necessary measures must be taken to ensure that this relief aid reaches disaster victims to help them rebuild their lives," Soeharto said at the State Palace while opening a meeting of the National Task Force for Natural Disaster Relief.

Minister of Social Services Endang Kusuma Inten Suweno, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. and several governors attended the opening ceremony.

The government has set aside about Rp 72 billion in its 1997/1998 state budget for a natural disaster relief fund.

Indonesia has 27 provinces, 243 regencies and 77 mayoralties.

Shortages of funding, equipment and human resources have forced local administrations to depend greatly on central government assistance when dealing with disasters.

Local administrators often seek to categorize a local disaster as a national disaster to gain more assistance from Jakarta.

But the government finds it difficult to handle disasters in remote areas.

In February last year, a major earthquake claimed more than 100 lives in Biak Numfor in Irian Jaya when the tidal waves it caused swept through many coastal villages.

At least 32,000 elementary school students lost their belongings and more than 350 schools were damaged.

Relief authorities there have complained about the late arrival of aid.

The government said transportation problems and the distance to Biak Numfor had slowed the relief operation.

The last big natural disaster was an earthquake in Kerinci, Jambi, last October which killed at least 70 people.

"We must try to speed up operations to help victims of the disaster," Soeharto said. (06)