Third World seeks aid for resettlement
Third World seeks aid for resettlement
JAKARTA (JP): Eighteen developing countries led by Indonesia
appealed to the international community yesterday to extend aid
for human resettlement programs which, they say, are crucial in
to their efforts to alleviate poverty.
Participants in a three-day seminar reviewing resettlement
programs agreed on the need to approach the international
community, particularly multilateral institutions, to finance
such programs.
The seminar, attended by 250 officials and experts from 18
developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, was
closed by Indonesia's Minister of Transmigration Siswono
Yudohusodo.
Siswono said international mechanisms should be developed to
give less-developed and developing countries access to
humanitarian and financial assistance to finance their
resettlement programs.
"The concept of population resettlement has been widely
accepted, but it cannot be implemented in full because of a
shortage of funds and technical assistance," he said, adding that
the international community should share responsibility in the
social development of developing countries.
Indonesia's own transmigration program has been the target of
widespread criticisms amid allegations of the use of coercion and
ecological damage to the settlement areas. Because of such
criticisms, many traditional aid donor countries and institutions
have become reluctant to fund the program.
Indonesia hopes to use this week's seminar to showcase the
positive impacts results of its transmigration program in
reducing poverty, proving its critics wrong. Today, some of the
delegates to the seminar will make a field visit to one of the
most successful transmigration sites in West Kalimantan.
Cambodian Minister of Rural Development Hong Sun Hot told The
Jakarta Post that he had learned many things from many countries
during the three-day seminar. "Such meetings in which
participants can share their own experience and information will
be useful. We want to host the next meeting," he said.
Ngo The Dan, Vietnam's vice minister of agriculture and rural
development, said his country is also keen to host the next
meeting. "We will lobby with all participating countries in the
seminar to win their support for such a meeting in Vietnam," he
said.
P.J. Van Dooren, a Dutch expert who once worked as consultant
at the Ministry of Transmigration, said that, for resettlement
programs to be successful, a number of preconditions must be met.
"All social and construction facilities, such as housing,
land, clean water, should be made available in resettlement areas
before transmigrants are resettled," he said.
He said the government should promote social harmony between
transmigrants and local people living near resettlement sites.
"The program should not raise resentment or social jealousy
from local people," he said. (rms)