Isolated tribes need help

PALU, Central Sulawesi: The province has 6,677 families living in isolated tribes, and only a small number have been given aid to improve their living conditions, an official says.

Mas'ud Bakry, head of the local branch of the Ministry of Social Services, told Antara here yesterday that only 1,153 families had been included in the ministry's development program.

Past efforts to resettle the tribes had failed due to the inappropriate approach employed by the ministry. "Cultural considerations were not take into account when we resettled them to other places," Mas'ud said.

"It would be a pity if we treated the isolated tribes in Sulawesi the same way we did the Dayak people in Kalimantan," he said.

Since 1973, the government has helped 177,000 isolated tribal people throughout Indonesia. In the Sixth Five Year Plan, due to end in 1999, the government targeted 48,000 isolated families for assistance. (swe)