Local govt criticized for rioting in Nabire

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)