What has the govt done for refugees?
What has the govt done for refugees?
By Santi W.E. Soekanto
JAKARTA (JP): Who's responsible for the nearly 800,000
refugees -- two thirds of them children -- facing hardship in
various camps in Indonesia?
The National Disaster Management Coordination Board (Bakornas
PB), a "non-structural" agency answering directly to the
President, is the body in charge of people affected by both
natural and unnatural disasters. Its tasks include prevention,
evacuation, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
The body is chaired by coordinating minister for social
welfare, and manned by the chairman of the National Social
Welfare Agency (BKSN), the home minister, health minister,
housing minister, education minister, communications minister and
other relevant ministers, the military commander plus various
governors of the affected areas.
The agency decides the kind of assistance that is given to the
refugees. Basically, emergency assistance is given for the first
two weeks following the occurrence of the disaster. The
assistance is usually in the form of 400 grams of rice per person
(at Rp 1,000 per kg) plus Rp 1,500 in cash for side dishes.
The BKSN decided, for instance, that refugees in Aceh were to
be given assistance for 75 days. North Sumatran refugees were
given help for 70 days, East Javanese for 70 days, West
Kalimantan 70 days, Southeast Sulawesi 70 days, South Sulawesi 70
days and East Nusa Tenggara 70 days while refugees in Maluku were
given 90 days of assistance.
According to data at the Center for the Welfare of Indonesian
Children (YKAI), these guidelines do not always stand. Assistance
to Maluku and West Kalimantan, for instance, has been extended
now to almost one year.
A recent report of the YKAI listed a number of programs
launched by various institutions to help the refugees. The
Ministry of National Education, for instance, is currently
studying the possibility of establishing Maluku Alternative
Education (PAM) for refugee children in the islands.
Initiated following several meetings with various NGOs from
both Muslim and Christian groups, PAM will also include
supplementary food programs for the children, trauma counseling
and a specific program geared for older children.
The office of State Minister of Transmigration is in charge of
relocating and assisting refugees in new settlements for up to
one year.
The refugees from Sambas, West Kalimantan, for instance, were
resettled in Tebang Kacang, Pontianak regency, in the same
province, and on Madura Island. The Madurese refugees were given
housing and a one-hectare of land each.
The office also distributed a total of 2,188 units of housing
from Japan to refugees in Aceh. It will also resettle 4,250
families to 11 provinces.
The National Commission for the Protection of Children, a non-
governmental organization, set up a Trauma Center in East Nusa
Tenggara. Its activists investigate incidents and screen children
who have experienced physical and psychological trauma, and
engage in various methods to help the children express their
pain. Some of the activists are trained to give therapy.
The commission, in addition, also organized play therapy,
transition schooling and training for trainers.
Another organization involved with the refugees is the
Lutheran World Service which has opened a "Tent School" in the
Noelbaki refugee camp in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.
Yet another organization involved, according to YKAI, is the
Medicine Sans Frontier whose activists trained local paramedics
to provide post traumatic stress disorder for refugees.