Displaced persons report denied by official

Displaced persons report denied by official

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A senior government official denied on Friday a report that
claimed that the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) had
dropped to some 380,000 last month from 1.24 million in May.

He refused to provide details.

However, a source close to the government said that the
380,000 IDPs were only those living in camps and that there were
many living with local relatives or local people.

"The number of IDPs has decreased but not sharply. Indeed, the
government has sent some back home, helped them migrate or has
relocated them to new areas," the source said.

According to him, the situation in conflict areas like Ambon
in Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi were relatively safer than
in previous months, but not in Aceh.

Besides, it is no longer easy to scare displaced people into
believing that their hometowns are unsafe and thus prevent them
from returning home, he said.

"They're fed up with provocative action. They are determined
to go home," he said.

At present, IDPs live in camps in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara
(NTT); in Buton, South Sulawesi; in Madura, East Java; in Medan,
North Sumatra; in areas in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam; in Poso,
Central Sulawesi and in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

"They are people who have fled 'civil war' in the
archipelago."

Data from the National Disaster Management and Refugee
Coordination Board (Bakornas PBP) in May stipulated that IDPs in
and around various conflict-torn areas reached 1.24 million.

On Thursday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri presented a
progress report to the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR)
saying, among other things, that the number of IDPs had decreased
to some 380,000.

The government provides only a Rp 1,500 (16 U.S. cents)
allowance and 400 grams of rice per day to each displaced person.

However, the government faces difficulty meeting IDPs' demands
for more food and money as well as cleaner and healthier
conditions in their camps.

The government ministerial teams involved in handling IDPs are
from the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Manpower and
Transmigration, the Ministry of Cooperatives and Small and Medium
Enterprises and the Ministry of Resettlement and Regional
Infrastructure.

The source also said that during the first seven months of
this year the government had repatriated about 250,000 IDPs to
their hometowns.

Citing data, the source said, for example, that 70,000 IDPs
in NTT had returned to East Timor, 40,000 IDPs to West
Kalimantan, and 60,000 IDPs to Central Sulawesi.

"It is proof that the number of IDPs has decreased."

He said the government had predicted that Madura would be the
only IDP location by the end of this year.