Local govt criticized for rioting in Nabire

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto blamed the Paniai administration yesterday for the recent rioting that saw thousands of job seekers take to the streets in the Irian Jaya regency.

"The administration wasn't well prepared, and it should have communicated more (with the local people)," Minister of Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi quoted the President as saying yesterday.

The President was commenting on the July 2 and 3 rioting of 3,000 disgruntled locals who were meant to apply for civil service jobs in the town of Nabire, Paniai. At least three security officers injured.

Speaking to the press after meeting with Soeharto at his Jakarta residence on Jl. Cendana, Silalahi explained that the government has decided to recruit 2,000 Irianese for civil service positions, all to be posted at home. Paniai is to be given 200 job openings.

"Rumors then spread among the job seekers that it was useless for them to take the job screening test because the authorities had determined who would get the jobs," he was quoted by Antara as saying. "This is what caused the rioting."

"There must have been people who instigated the youths to riot. They wouldn't have set the local prison on fire and let prisoners loose if they had only been worried about not getting jobs," he said.

Earlier reports said that the masses in Paniai began rioting when they heard rumors that 95 percent of the job openings available for Paniai residents had already been filled. They vandalized the regency government's office, set fire to the legislative council buildings, the town's prison and a market.

Nearly 100 office buildings, shops, homes and vehicles were destroyed by the mob, while some 60 prisoners escaped from prisons as the rioting occurred, though they were recaptured or turned themselves in later. The rioting caused estimated losses of Rp 1.4 billion (US$595,700).

Security forces foiled the rioters' attempt to torch an oil warehouse belonging to state-owned oil company Pertamina and the Nabire airport facilities. Troops were called in after the police were overwhelmed.

The riot was the fourth to have rocked Irian Jaya this year, though no arrests were made. In March, nine people were killed in separate violent street protests in Timika, Tembagapura and Abepura.

Silalahi expressed regrets over the local administration's poor handling of the situation. He said that the President also called on the Irianese to welcome the government's goodwill gesture to provide more jobs for the local people.

"The job openings were given because there were indeed opportunities for the Irianese there," he said. "In the past, many civil service positions, such as teachers, were filled by newcomers from other regions."

Many of the newcomers, Silalahi said, later abandoned their posts or demanded that they be sent to other areas. "If the jobs were given to Irianese people, there wouldn't be any such problem," he said. "They would have loved working in their own region."

He called on Irianese youths not to compare development in their region with development in other areas such as East Timor.

"The government gives equal opportunity and attention to all regions to develop and grow maximally," he said. (swe)