Hendro told to improve transmigration sites

Hendro told to improve transmigration sites

JAKARTA (JP): The government intends to improve the quality of
existing transmigration sites rather than open new ones,
President Soeharto said yesterday.

The President told Minister of Transmigration and Resettlement
of Forest Squatters A.M. Hendro Priyono to provide better
protection and living conditions for the resettled farmers.

"The perception that the transmigration program is nothing but
transferring poverty and misery (from densely populated areas to)
somewhere else, must be proved wrong, because resettlement is
meant to boost people's welfare," Hendro said after meeting with
Soeharto at his private residence on Jl. Cendana, Central
Jakarta.

The President also ordered the minister to solve land disputes
at resettlement sites between local inhabitants and
transmigrants.

He cited how 300 transmigrant families in Kendari, Southeast
Sulawesi, were facing uncertainty about their land ownership
because of negligence on the part of the transmigration
administrators.

"Before opening a new resettlement site, it is better to
complete all legal and administrative matters," Hendro quoted
Soeharto as saying.

"At the moment there are at least 56 problematic resettlement
sites and another 40 sites may face similar problems in the
future," Hendro noted.

"The sources of conflict include administrative, social and
geographical aspects," he added.

During the 1998/1999 fiscal year the government plans to
relocate 46,000 families to 105 new transmigration sites, most of
which are in Kalimantan and Irian Jaya.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Hendro is not a newcomer to the transmigration
sector, because through the post of secretary of development
operations that he concurrently holds -- a position directly
supervised by the President -- he has become familiar with
resettlement, agriculture and supervision problems.

For short-term targets, the minister said he would encourage
farmers to plant soybeans in a bid to boost national production
as the country still imports at least 700,000 tons of soybeans
per year.

"At least 50 percent of the 593,000 hectares of potential
farmland can be tilled to produce soybeans," the minister
remarked. (prb)