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Jakarta Post

Families demand compensation for civilian victims

Family members of civilian victims of the C-130 Hercules military aircraft crash in Medan have urged the government to pay them compensation

Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post)
Medan/Jakarta
Sat, July 4, 2015

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Families demand compensation for civilian victims

F

amily members of civilian victims of the C-130 Hercules military aircraft crash in Medan have urged the government to pay them compensation.

'€œI ask the government not to differentiate between victims of the accident, including in the amount of compensation. They were all victims of the same accident,'€ Rifai, a resident of Tanjung Selamat, Medan, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Rifai said his daughter, Herdiah, was working at a beauty salon when the plane crashed into it on Tuesday.

Police data reveals that at least eight civilians on the ground were killed in the accident. Three others who suffered serious injuries are being treated at Adam Malik Hospital in Medan.

The Indonesian Military'€™s (TNI) insurance company PT ASABRI'€™s manager in Medan, Kabul Mulyanto, said the company did not provide insurance for civilians.

'€œWe don'€™t cover civilians. We don'€™t have a procedure,'€ he said.

A total of 143 body bags had been taken to Adam Malik Hospital by Friday afternoon, according to data of the National Police Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team. From the figure, 99 people have been identified. The plane had 122 people on board.

Every military personnel who died in the accident, Kabul said, would receive Rp 100 million in death insurance and other compensation, including funeral assistance funds.

On Thursday, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said the family of each civilian victim would receive Rp 15 million (US$7,800) in compensation from the government.

Referring to a ministerial regulation, Khofifah said such compensation was allocated for victims of natural disasters or social disasters. She, however, said that the compensation would be paid after the completion of the identification of the victims.

'€œIt is not good [to pay compensation] while identification is ongoing,'€ she said.

Separately, a new survey conducted by the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has found that 37 percent of the TNI'€™s primary weaponry defense systems is 40 years old.

According to CSIS research conducted in early 2015, the Army ranks first in aging equipment with 37 percent of its weaponry defense system more than 40 years old, while the Navy registered 36 percent and the Air Force 33 percent.

'€œOperationally, 28 percent of TNI weaponry defense systems has operated for 40 years,'€ CSIS researcher Iis Gindarsah told reporters during his presentation at the CSIS office in Jakarta on Friday.

He explained that it was very dangerous as it could lead to another tragedy like the recent Hercules crash in Medan.

'€œHowever, it does not mean that the weaponry systems cannot operate anymore because of age,'€ Iis said, adding that the existing weaponry defense systems would operate well if spare parts were readily available and maintained routinely.

According to CSIS research, the modernization of the TNI weaponry defense systems, which was initiated 15 years ago, has progressed slowly. This is mainly a result of a lack of funding and the government paradigm for the TNI budget.

'€œThe government does not provide a budget allocation for TNI'€™s needs for weaponry defense systems but on the basis of how much money is available.

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