NU ready to provide shelter to 20,000 Acehnese orphans

Tiarma Siboro and Nana Rukmana, Jakarta/Cirebon

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, urged the government on Tuesday to revoke its ban on Acehnese children affected by the recent tsunami leaving the province.

NU Chairman Hasyim Muzadi said NU's pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) in West and North Sumatra, as well as Java, were ready to accommodate up to 20,000 children left orphaned or separated from their parents by the Dec. 26 tsunami

"If the government reconsiders its policy and allows the children to leave Aceh, thousands more of them will be able to live in safer and healthier circumstances.

"The NU has prepared places across West Sumatra, North Sumatra and Java provinces to shelter them," Hasyim told a press conference in Central Jakarta.

He said a number of NU pesantren in Aceh had been damaged or destroyed by the earthquake and tidal wave that shattered the province.

"However, we still have about 15 pesantren there that can accommodate 4,350 Acehnese orphans, with 350 of them already having been sent to our pesantren in Banda Aceh, Pidie, Aceh Besar and Bireuen," he said.

In a bid to protect Acehnese children, the government has issued a regulation banning any movement of Acehnese infants and children out of the province.

NU cleric Adib Rofi'uddin Izza from West Java said he was willing to provide shelter to 15,000 Acehnese children in 36 pesantren in West, Central and East Java, and Yogyakarta, which have also been designated as therapy centers to heal the children's post-tsunami trauma.

Government figures show that more than 35,000 children have been left orphaned or separated from their families by the disaster that killed nearly 115,000 people in Aceh and North Sumatra, and forced more than 300,000 survivors into refugee camps.

Hasyim's remarks came amid widespread rumors that United States-based World Health orphanages planned to provide shelter to about 300 Acehnese orphans, spreading fears that the move could cause religious tension in the predominantly Muslim province.

The organizations representing Indonesia's Catholic and Protestant communities, the Indonesian Council of Bishops (KWI) and the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) respectively, have, however, denied that they had any proselytizing mission in Aceh.

"The Acehnese people have suffered greatly due to the calamity. So, let us support the survivors by refraining from causing any religious tension there," Hasyim said.