Over 100 die of drought-related illnesses in Mimika

JAKARTA (JP): More than 100 people from the villages of Alama, Ngim and Mbua Jigi in the Agimuga subdistrict of Irian Jaya's Mimika regency have died of malnutrition and drought-related illnesses since Oct. 11, Antara reported yesterday.

The news agency quoted Dr Ferenc Meyer of the Indonesian office of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) as saying that an ICRC-Indonesian Red Cross team had visited the area Wednesday.

He said the team went by helicopter to the remote villages and found that 103 people had died there due to this year's long drought.

He said about 1,000 others in the area were in critical condition and needed immediate help.

The dead were 33 Alama villagers, 10 Ngim villagers and 60 from Mbua Jigi, Meyer said.

The ICRC sent a seven-member team including two doctors, two nurses, a nutritionist and a malaria specialist from Freeport mining company to the villages.

They took with them a ton of rice donated by ICRC headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

The organization's dispatch of highly nutritious food, known as Compact Food BP-5, has yet to reach Timika, where relief teams are basing their activities.

The nutritionist, Swiss Alain Mourey, has helped famine victims in Ethiopia, Somalia and Bangladesh, said Meyer.

Preliminary examinations showed that most had died of malnutrition, diarrhea and malaria.

Blood samples taken from 180 Alama villagers are being tested at the Freeport laboratory in Timika.

Meyer said poor weather had hampered relief activities in the villages which are some 1,000 meters above sea level and 30 kilometers from the city Mimika.

He said other, inaccessible villages could be suffering the same plight.

The drought has caused extensive damage in Irian Jaya, including the food shortage and spread of diseases.

Earlier reports had put the total number of dead due to drought-related illnesses at 528 people from three of Irian Jaya's regencies -- 430 deaths in Jayawijaya, 74 in Merauke and 24 in Puncak Jaya.

The latest reported deaths in Mimika bring the number of fatalities to more than 600 this year in Irian Jaya, one of Indonesia's most underdeveloped provinces.

Most of the province's two million inhabitants adhere to a traditional subsistence way of life.

Also in Jayawijaya, some 90,000 residents were reportedly living under the threat of a malaria outbreak.

Antara also reported yesterday that Jayawijaya Regent J.B. Wenas had said that many schools were closed because teachers and students had to spend a lot of time foraging for food in the forests.

"I am sure that once the drought is over and residents resume (normal) daily activities, the schools will reopen," he said.

Earlier this month, it was reported that thousands of tribal people in Maluku faced critical food shortages. (swe)