Relief aid containers pile up at Medan's Belawan Port

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Some 1,441 containers filled with relief aid for tsunami victims in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam are still being detained by the customs authorities at Belawan port in Medan due to incomplete documentation, an official said on Monday.

Apart from detaining the containers, the customs authorities also detained 73 vehicles sent as part of the tsunami relief effort.

Head of the investigation and prevention section of the Belawan Customs and Excise Office, Cerah Bangun, said the containers had started to pile up in the port four months ago, adding that there was a danger that food aid in some of the containers would ultimately become inedible.

He said the number of containers held up, mostly containing food aid such as rice and sugar, was on the rise. Last week, there were only a few hundred containers detained but now the figure had reached over a thousand.

"We have to detain the aid if it does not have permits from the Ministry of Trade," Cerah said. "We don't want to hold it up for long, of course, as many people depend on it."

Meanwhile, vehicles sent as part of the tsunami relief effort keep arriving at the port.

According to data from the customs office, 169 vehicles had arrived in the port as part of the tsunami relief effort over the last four months. Of these, 96 had been released, while the remaining 73 were still being detained.

"The vehicles are being kept in six locations outside the port as there's no more space here for all of them," he said.

Around 18 cars of various makes have been parked up at the North Sumatra Transportation Office. The whereabouts of the other cars are currently unknown.

Amid fears that the cars might be illegally sold, the head of the Transportation Office's Marine Subdivision, Abdul Rahman, said the cars had been parked at his office at the request of the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, the Ministry of Trade, and Customs and Excise.

He said that his office had been visited by people claiming to own the cars, which have been parked at the office for a week now, but they were sent away as they could not show the necessary documentation from the customs authority.

Cerah Bangun said his office had parked 18 cars at the Transportation Office, but the cars were still under his office supervision. He denied that there was any plot to release the vehicles even though they did not have the necessary documents.

"All the cars are still in our custody and can't be released just like that as we still have charge of their keys," he said.