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Clinton praises Aceh tsunami recovery efforts
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In this file photo, acting Aceh Governor Soedarmo (left), local officials and residents of Aceh place flowers at the Ulee Lheu mass grave.
(Antara/Ampelsa)
F
ormer US president Bill Clinton discussed the "remarkable" tsunami recovery measures in Aceh at a recent gathering while addressing his objections to planned "drastic" cuts in his country's foreign aid budget.
Clinton was speaking to alliance organization InterAction on June 20 in the first major meeting of US-based international aid groups since President Donald Trump proposed major cuts to US aid in his 2018 budget.
In his keynote speech, Clinton recalled his experience as a United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, examining the aftermath rebuilding process in "hard hit" Aceh in 2006.
"The way the recovery was done," Clinton said, "marked the first major project Indonesia had undertaken, even 11 years later, completely free from any form of corruption."
The "remarkable" recovery efforts, Clinton said, were accomplished partly because the system was built for total transparency in regards to "commitments made, commitments received and what the money was spent on."
Clinton noted that the effort was graft-free "partly because of the leadership of Pak Kuntoro", referring to Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the former chief of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Aceh and Nias (BRR Aceh-Nias), set up in 2005 in the wake of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami.
Kuntoro said as quoted by Tempo in May 2006 that the agency he then led had uncovered 32 corruption cases related to post-Tsunami redevelopment in Aceh.
In February this year, the Banda Aceh Prosecutor's Office arrested former BRR Aceh-Nias top official Hendrawan Diandi, a suspect in the corruption case surrounding the BRR Aceh-Nias book project. (ary)
