Food relief yet to reach famine victims in Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): Amid fresh reports of food shortages in East Kalimantan, hundreds of boxes of food relief for famine victims in Puncak Jaya, Irian Jaya, are sitting in storage due to a poor distribution system.

Antara reported that 23,000 people in Kutai and Pasir regencies in East Kalimantan were facing food shortages because drought had ruined their crops. Most of the people were transmigrants in eight subdistricts in the two regencies, according to Awang Farouq Ishak, the chief of the East Kalimantan provincial office of the Environmental Management Agency.

However, the provincial office of the Ministry of Social Services had dispatched rice to the residents living around timber estates in Pasir, he said.

Awang also said hundreds were suffering from pneumonia, asthma and diarrhea because of the drought and haze from forest fires in the province.

Thousands of people in drought-affected East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara are also currently facing food shortage because their crops failed last year.

Antara also reported that around 200 big boxes of food relief destined for drought victims in Puncak Jaya were piled up in the provincial capital Jayapura because of a lack of air transportation.

Sam Leimena, secretary of the local office of the disaster management agency Satkorlak PBA, confirmed the situation.

Hundreds of people died in several regencies in Irian Jaya of malnutrition and drought-related illnesses last year, the news agency said.

Mission Aviation Fellowship, entrusted by the provincial government to transport food to famine victims, has deployed 12 light aircraft to transport relief to remote areas in Jayawijaya regency.

Leimena said, however, that the situation in Puncak Jaya was not as bad as in Jayawijaya regency.

"That is why the government has given priority to transport food aid to Jayawijaya," he said, as quoted by Antara.

Wirda Fakaubun, a Puncak Jaya regency official, said residents were lamenting the soaring prices of basic commodities. She blamed the situation not only on the monetary crisis but also poor transportation as the regency could only be reached by air.

He said the price of a kilogram of rice in the regency was Rp 10,000 (in Jakarta, it is Rp 2,000) while a sack of cement was Rp 45,000.

According to data issued by the provincial health ministry office, more than 5,500 people are suffering from respiratory diseases, 50 are infected with pneumonia, 1,283 are suffering from diarrhea, 381 are suffering from asthma and 172 are suffering eye irritations because of the drought, haze and forest fires.

The United Nations Development Program warned Wednesday that the long drought and monetary crisis was threatening food security in the country. It said that 7.5 million people living in 15 provinces risked experiencing food insecurity until early 1999 if the prolonged dry season lasted much longer. (rms)