Refugees detain governor, councillors

Refugees detain governor, councillors

MEDAN, North Sumatra: Hundreds of angry refugees from war-torn
Aceh prevented North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin and all
provincial councillors from leaving the legislative building for
six hours on Thursday, as their demand for immediate disbursement
of resettlement funds remained unheeded.

The protesters began picketing the building where the 85
councillors were holding a plenary session to hear the
accountability speech of the governor at 2 p.m.

They let Rizal leave the building at 8 p.m. after he had made
a promise to disburse the funds soon, pending verification of the
number of refugees who had not received the money.

The refugees have been camping at the compounds of the
gubernatorial office and legislature for the past three weeks to
make them comply with their demand. They are part of 4,600
refugee families who have not yet received the funds.

The Ministry of Social Affairs allocated Rp 105 billion for
12,000 refugee families, but the distribution of the funds was
suspended following an alleged scam.

Rizal told the refugees to depart from the gubernatorial
office compound by Friday at the latest. -- JP