National

President Asks Donor Countries to Disburse Aceh Funds As Soon As Possible
Tuesday, 27 September, 2005 | 12:03 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has requested donor countries fulfill their commitment and disburse their post-tsunami disaster Aceh reconstruction funds.

According to Yudhoyono, some of the donor countries have already disbursed US$1.2 billion out of the total commitment of US$3.5 billion.

The President said that he had discussed this matter with United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan during the UN General Assembly in New York two weeks ago.

“I requested the cooperation of the UN to ensure that these countries fulfilled their promises to allocate funds,” said Yudhoyono at the State Palace, Jakarta, after receiving a visit from Princess Anne of the UK on Monday (26/09).

The President said that there was an extremely large amount of attention internationally focused on the success of the reconstruction process in countries hit by the tsunami disaster, including Indonesia.

Currently, the Indonesian government is considering speeding up the construction of housing for Acehnese who have become refugees.

“At the moment, 12,000 houses are being constructed out of the total 30,000 planned to be built by the end of this year. Some 6,000 homes are already completed,” said the President.

Yudhoyono went on to say the UN was concerned that there could be sanitation and educational problems if the Acehneses live too long in refugee camps.

This is the reason why the house construction targets will be re-evaluated.

“If we wait until 2006 or 2007 for construction to be completed, a great many citizens will have to remain in the refugee camps,” said Yudhoyono.

The global community would also show its appreciation because in addition to launching the reconstruction process, peace in Aceh will also be achieved and life in Aceh will return to normal. (Budi Riza-Tempo News Room)