UNHCR scaling back Aceh relief work
UNHCR scaling back Aceh relief work
Mike Corder, Associated Press, Banda Aceh
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun scaling back its relief efforts in tsunami-hit Aceh province, an official said on Saturday, saying the Indonesian government has yet to say if the organization will be allowed to participate in long-term rebuilding efforts.
UNHCR has about 100 international and local staff working in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province. Since the Dec. 26 disaster that killed about 250,000 people in Indonesia, its staff have distributed tents, plastic sheets and blankets to nearly 100,000 survivors.
"The UNHCR has not yet been requested to take part in the rehabilitation and reconstruction stage of the operation. We have sought and continue to seek some clarity," said Gregory Garras, the UNHCR's team leader in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.
March 26 was the date set by Jakarta for the withdrawal of agencies involved only in providing food and medicine from Aceh. The government announced on Thursday that the deadline would be pushed back by up to two months, but the announcement was not enough to satisfy UNHCR.
Before the tsunami, Aceh was all but closed to foreigners as Jakarta's forces battled separatist rebels.
"Of course we are extremely concerned about the March 26 deadline. It is very difficult to work in a situation of uncertainty," he added.
"We have begun some scaling back" of operations, said Garras. He gave no details and calls to the UNHCR's Jakarta office went unanswered.
If UNHCR leaves, it will come as a blow to survivors, who already have been huddling under canvas in makeshift camps for nearly three months.
The group had intended to build between 25,000 and 35,000 houses along the west coast of Aceh province for survivors left homeless by the disaster.
Garras said that if the UNHCR was allowed to remain, the organization would likely begin in April a pilot project building some 1,000 homes in the village of Kruengsabe near the devastated fishing town of Calang.
"We are certainly willing to continue our work up here, but in order for us to be able to do that, there would have to be some clarity as to whether our expertise would be required and to date, that has not happened," Garras said.
Laura Worsley-Brown, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab, said Shihab was on his way back from a meeting in Manila, but planned to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono shortly to discuss "what the government can do about communicating its future plans."
Worsley-Brown said one of the reasons some in the government see no future role for the UNHCR is "because the name of the organization has 'refugees' and technically, there are no refugees in Banda Aceh."