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.