Irian Jaya urges end to transmigrants

Irian Jaya urges end to transmigrants

FAKFAK, Irian Jaya: The Irian Jaya provincial legislative
council wants the central government to stop sending
transmigrants from densely populated areas of the province.

Florens Imbiri, the head of the Love the Nation Democratic
Party (PDKB) faction told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the
legislative council had urged the government, through the
Ministry of Transmigration office in Irian Jaya, to stop its
resettlement programs for Irian Jaya.

He said the demand was communicated to the minister of
transmigration, the People's Consultative Assembly and the House
of Representatives in Jakarta.

Florens did not say if the legislative council had sent an
official letter to the Ministry of Transmigration over the
demand.

Florens said the central government had given too much
attention to the transmigrants by providing them with houses and
land, while there was a large number of Irianese living in the
hinterland which were still unaided by the government.

"Such discriminative treatment constitutes injustice and in
turn triggers social jealousy in the future," Florens said.

The Irianese living in the hinterland must be given the
priority, he said. "Therefore, stop the transmigration programs
in Irian Jaya and start empowering the Irianese, especially those
in remote areas," Florens said.

Records at the Irian Jaya Provincial Social Affairs office
indicate that Irian Jaya now has a population of about 2 million,
half of which are native Papuans.

"Some 477,000 of the Papuans live in remote and mountainous
areas throughout the province. They have never been touched by
development," Decky Asmuruf, the head of the Social Affairs
office said.

"The first step the central government should take is to
provide the isolated tribes with housing," Decky said. (eba)