Irian Jaya to take more resettlers
JAKARTA (JP): This year the government is to send a greater number of transmigrants than ever before to the sparsely occupied Irian Jaya from the densely populated Java, Bali and Madura.
"Irian will receive most of the 1996/97 fiscal's year transmigrants...around 9,000 families," Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo said after meeting with President Soeharto yesterday.
He pointed out that last year his office resettled 49,332 families, or 210,000 people, to a variety of areas in the archipelago.
West Kalimantan received 7,702 families, Riau 6,362 families, and Central Kalimantan 4,891 families. Siswono said Irian ranked fourth, but did not specify the number of people resettled there. All of the four provinces he mentioned are less-developed parts of Indonesia.
Irian Jaya's 421,981 square kilometers is populated by only two million people at a density of four people per square kilometer. Java, in comparison, has 115 million people living cramped on an area of 132,186 square kilometers. The population density is 870 people per square kilometer.
During the past six months, Irian Jaya has repeatedly grabbed international attention following a number of incidents involving the separatist movement and the giant gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia.
Last month an angry mob torched the Abepura market in Jayapura, causing a loss of Rp 10 billion for some 100 traders who are mostly resettlers. The riot itself was sparked by the Irianese natives' anger after they were unable to pay their last respects to the body of a separatist leader.
Around 130 people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the violent protest, 43 of whom are suspected of masterminding the incident.
Siswono also said that of the people resettled in the past year, 29,585 families went on their own initiative. Most of these people are from East Java and chose South Sumatra, Riau and Central Sulawesi as their destinations, he said.
Siswono said the President has instructed him to provide each family transmigrating this year with a cow. The program will start with ten resettlement areas on the islands of Sipona, Natuna, Cemajak, Wawonii, Sabaena and in the border area between Irian and Papua New Guinea.
Each resettlement unit is occupied by 300 families.
Thirty-five people, representing 100 families who have resettled in Arso, Irian Jaya, recently lodged a complaint with the local office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation concerning the transmigration office's failure to keep their promise of giving each resettling family a two-hectare plot of land. (swe/01)