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Refugees await relocation from national park
While their presence continues to damage the protected forest of Sumatra, the planned relocation of more that 500 refugee families has reached a bureaucratic standstill
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hile their presence continues to damage the protected forest of Sumatra, the planned relocation of more that 500 refugee families has reached a bureaucratic standstill.
The families were among the tens of thousands of Acehnese and Javanese transmigrants displaced by the nine-year military operations up until 1998, against The Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
The protected forest in the Gunung Leuser National Park (TNGL) is currently home to 554 families who are now waiting to be relocated to neighboring Solok in
West Sumatra.
The head of TNGL management agency, Harijoko, said the plan, which had been mooted 10 years back, was initially scheduled for execution by January this year.
“Technically, we are more than ready to relocate [the refugees out] of TNGL areas. We have told officials from both the central government and the West Sumatra administration,” Harijoko told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, West Sumatra says it has not decided on spatial planning requirements for the move,” he said.
The relocation site chosen is in Solok regency, West Sumatra, and covers around 2,000 hectares.
“Still, relocation will only be possible if the spatial planning is already set up,” he said.
Harijoko expressed hopes that the move could be carried out as quickly as possible to prevent further damage to the park. Since the refugees settled there, many areas of the park have been seriously damaged and turned into residential areas, he said.
Harijoko said the residential area taken up by the Acehnese refugees now covered at least 2,000 hectares of protected forests, with another 18,000 hectares having suffered from their illegal logging
activities.
TNGL covers a total of around 1.1 million hectares, and stretches into the two neighboring provinces of North Sumatra and Aceh.
Harijoko also said both the TNGL management and police had repeatedly warned the refugees to leave the protected forest area, but their warnings seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.
“They said they would leave the area only if the government prepared a relocation site for them,” he said.
Separately, the head of North Sumatra Police public relations division, Sr. Comr. Baharuddin Djafar, said his office had intensified its monitoring of the refugees, especially with an increase in illegal logging in the national park.
