The Indonesian government temporarily prohibited the adoption of the homeless children in Aceh Province after the tsunami disaster on December 26, killing more than 95,000 people, media reported on Wednesday.

Many people have expressed willingness to adopt Acehnese orphans who lost their parents in the natural disaster.

"We have decided not to allow the adoption of Acehnese children temporarily in a bid to avoid controversy and possible trafficking cases," Minister of Social Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah said, who was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily.

Adoption of Acehnese orphans could be a sensitive matter as it often involves the issues of ethnicity and religion.

Some 35,000 children left orphaned or separated from their families after the tsunami that inundated the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra.

Director for child protection at the Ministry of Social Affairs Makmur Sanusi said that Acehnese children were not allowed to be adopted unless it confirmed beyond any doubt that they had lost all of their relatives.

Many homeless children are currently being placed in orphanages and Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province and other towns across Sumatra island, while some others are being taken care of by other Acehnese families.

Spokesman of the United Nation Children Fund for Indonesia, John Budd, said that the Malaysian office had received a message advertising that 300 orphans from Aceh, aged between three and 10,could be bought.

However, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Paiman said that so far the police had not found any cases of child trafficking in Aceh.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2005)