Construction starts on long-awaited Poso refugee housing
Ruslan Sangadji, The Jakarta Post, Palu
November 06, 2006

The government has revived a long-delayed project to construct more than 1,000 houses for people displaced by the religious conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi.
A ground breaking ceremony was held in Poso over the weekend by Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Djoko Susanto.
The houses will be build in nine districts throughout Poso. No land compensation funds will be paid because the houses are to be built on plots already owned by the refuges, who left their homes after the buildings were burnt down during the conflict in 2000.
The project has been postponed a number times for various reasons, including a lack of wood supplies in Poso.
Amirullah Sia, head of the Poso Social Services Office, said Thursday that the project was estimated to required around 5,000 cubic meters of wood for the construction of the houses, which will measure six by six meters.
"It is very difficult to get such a large quantity of wood in Poso," Amirullah said.
Forestry Minister Malam S. Kaban rejected a proposal to log trees in the area, further putting back plans to start the project.
"We asked the minister to allow a certain forest concession holder in Poso to harvest the trees, but he turned us down," Amirullah said.
He said the project had been initially delayed in 2004, when it emerged that money had been embezzled from humanitarian funds set up for the victims of the Poso conflict. Then, in 2005, the project was set back again when its budget had to be revised, from Rp 5 million (US$526.31) per house to Rp 11 million, with a construction cost of Rp 4 million a building.
Thousands of people left their homes during the Poso conflict, but by 2003 up to 31,326 family heads had returned.
The government has so far given a daily allowance to the heads of 13,256 families and provided 12,818 permanent and semi-permanent houses, which were distributed through local public works and social services offices.
There are many people who are still living in tents, however. In Tokorondo village, for example, at least 500 people are living in a refugee center that sits next to a soccer field.
Rahmah, 41, said she, her husband and their three children and lived at the refugee center for five years. "I'm forced to stay here because I don't have a house. Mine was burned down during the conflict," she said.
At least 600 family heads are living at a local refugee center in Tentena village. Conditions are poor at the center, with refugees sharing five-by-seven-meter tents that have little in the way of privacy.
Rev. AR. Tobondo, deputy chairman of Central Sulawesi Christian Church Synod Assembly said that the Tentena refugees were all Christians.
"Some of them actually do have their own houses but are reluctant to return to them. We've explained to them that the conflict is over, but they insist on staying at the refugee camp," Tobondo said.