Aceh tsunami victims get Idul Fitri allowances

Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - Some 1,300 tsunami victims in Banda Aceh municipality and Aceh Besar district have received Idul Fitri allowances from the Australian Red Cross, a spokesman said.

"The Idul Fitri allowances originated from the Australian Red Cross. We only distributed it among tsunami victims," the head of the Banda Aceh office of state-owned company PT Pos Indonesia, Salman, said here Wednesday.

He said the Australian Red Cross made available Rp3 billion in cash for distribution among the tsunami victims.

They received Rp500,000 each, he said.

The allowances were designed to enable the tsunami victims to celebrate the Idul Fitri festivities like other Muslims, he said.

Aceh bore the brunt of an undersea 8.9 magnitude earthquake and a subsequent tsunami on December 26, 2004 when more than 200,000 people perished and thousands of houses levelled to the ground.