SBY orders review of relief agency

SBY orders review of relief agency

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Citing the lack of coordination and poor management in handling
emergency relief operations for tsunami victims in Aceh,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the reorganization of
the National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Relief and Refugees
(Bakornas PBP) led by Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

In a limited Cabinet meeting on Sunday, the President
highlighted the poor coordination among the state agencies
involved in the Bakornas PBP, which he said was hampering aid
distribution in tsunami-affected areas across Aceh and North
Sumatra.

"We have been ordered to identify the weak links in the chain
of relief operation management and to improve the organization of
Bakornas in order to speed up humanitarian operations in Aceh,"
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said after
the Cabinet meeting.

He said President Susilo ordered Kalla, as the Bakornas PBP
chairman, to lead a technical Cabinet meeting to discuss the
issue.

Susilo wants to see the national disaster relief agency begin
improving its coordination and organization by Tuesday, according
to Alwi.

"The President has called for the speeding up of the cleanup
and the removal of corpses, and improvement in the coordination
from the President down to everybody in the field to ensure
nobody strays off schedule," Alwi said.

Susilo issued the order after visiting Nias island in North
Sumatra last week, which was among the areas affected by the Dec.
26 earthquake and tsunami.

The situation on the island, where the relief operation has
been coordinated by Susilo aide and Cabinet Secretary Sudi
Silalahi, is improving much more rapidly than in Aceh, which
suffered much greater damage in the tragedy.

The disaster's overall death toll rose to more than 168,000 on
Sunday with another 4,741 deaths reported in the town of Calang
on the west coast of Aceh, taking Indonesia's total casualties to
114,978.

Susilo issued a press statement last Friday criticizing the
poor coordination of Bakornas PBP under Jusuf Kalla, which he
said had significantly hindered relief work in Aceh.

This appears to be another point of contention between the
President and his deputy, after Kalla allegedly went beyond his
authority last week by issuing an instruction on the
establishment of a national team to handle emergency relief
operations in Aceh.

State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the instruction
issued by Kalla was "unconstitutional" because the President, not
the Vice President, had authority to issue such orders.

However, Susilo did not specifically recommend the replacement
of Kalla as the Bakornas chief.

After a separate meeting chaired by Kalla later on Sunday,
ministers and top officials said some lower-level Bakornas
officers might be replaced to improve coordination and aid
distribution.

The President also reiterated that the much disputed
"deadline" of three months for foreign troops to leave Aceh was a
"time line, not a deadline".

Defense minister Juwono Sudarsono said he told visiting U.S.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz on Sunday that March 26
was "a benchmark after which all, if not most, of the efforts to
alleviate the disaster in Aceh would be largely in our hands, and
foreign troops involved in the relief operations will be
significantly reduced".