Jakarta – More than 36 billion rupiah meant for the Acehnese refugees has been embezzled allegedly by officials who also stole other forms of aid provided by humanitarian groups.
Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah, who disclosed this, said that the money was part of the 100 billion rupiah that Jakarta set aside to resettle 11,000 Acehnese refugees, displaced because of the fighting between security forces and the separatists over the past three years.
While many of the refugees had been resettled, there were still 4,000 who were stranded in Medan, the North Sumatra capital, and the nearby districts, he said.
He ordered the provincial government to do a thorough investigation of the scandal and take action to solve the refugee problem.
"The local government there must be held responsible for the funds that have not yet been distributed to the remaining 4,000 refugees," he said in Central Sulawesi on Tuesday.
He said North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin had to account for the distribution of the funds to the remaining 4,000 people, who have been taking refuge in Medan and its surrounding districts.
At least two refugees have died and several others are in intensive care in a hospital in Medan after staging a hunger strike to demand the local government disburse the resettlement funds.
Hundreds of other refugees are now camped out at the North Sumatra legislative council building after the provincial administration failed to respond to their demands.
Mr Bachtiar said the social affairs office, which now comes under the provincial administration following regional autonomy, had prepared a database on the number of Acehnese refugees in the province.
"Of course, the provincial administration has recorded that there are some 4,000 refugees who have received resettlement funds. However, some of those camped out at the provincial legislature building are not refugees as their identities are not recorded in the database," he said.
He admitted that a number of employees in the provincial social affairs office were involved in the embezzlement of the funds.
According to the resettlement programme, refugees are entitled to a total of 8.75 million rupiah each to build modest homes and to survive for three months.
"The governor should order the police and the prosecutor's office in Medan to investigate this corruption," Mr Bachtiar said. He added that it was intolerable as besides committing crimes, the corrupt officials were also stealing humanitarian aid earmarked for refugees.
The minister also said that the refugees would be allowed to return to their home villages if the situation there improved.
The conflict in Aceh has killed about 12,000 people in the past decade.