Irian wants lion's share of revenues

JAKARTA (JP): Irian Jaya wants to keep the lion's share of its own wealth under the special autonomy status offered by the central government, the province's governor said on Monday.

Governor Jacobus P. Solossa said that under the special autonomy status, the province should retain 80 percent of its revenue from local resources, which are mostly minerals.

Jacobus was speaking after presenting the proposed draft of the law on special autonomy status to President Abdurrahman Wahid at the Bina Graha presidential office.

The draft was drawn up by a 14 member team, comprising officials of the local administration, councillors, nongovernmental activists and proindependence leaders, named the Forum to Examine Special Autonomy Laws for a New Papua.

Under the forum's proposal, the province, also known as West Papua, would collect from Rp 16 trillion to 20 trillion a year in revenue (US$ 1.5 billion to US$ 1.8 billion), up from the current Rp 2.8 trillion.

Jacobus said the proposal was the best response to attempts to turn Irian Jaya into a prosperous region.

The forum called on Jakarta to open a dialog with proindependence leaders to resolve differences over the history of Irian Jaya's integration.

Proindependence leaders maintain that a UN-backed plebiscite in 1969, which ratified Indonesian sovereignty over the former Dutch colony, was flawed and unrepresentative.

The government has ruled out independence for Irian Jaya and has offered it special autonomy instead.

The forum also requested the unconditional release of all political prisoners, while pressing the government to form an independent team to investigate human rights abuses in the province.

Later in the day, the draft was also presented to the House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung.

Deputy chairman of the House commission II for home and legal affairs Hamdan Zoelva said after the meeting with Jacobus that the House would lobby the government to consider also the forum's draft law.

"We would ask the government to retract its earlier draft and submit the delegation's draft as its proposal," Hamdan said.

"Otherwise, the House would consider the delegation's draft as the main material," Hamdan said.

The government has offered special autonomy status to Irian Jaya and Aceh in a bid to address demands for independence in the two provinces. (byg/dja)