Over 81,000 face famine in Maluku

JAKARTA (JP): As relief efforts continued in drought-stricken Irian Jaya, it was reported Saturday that over 81,000 people in Maluku were facing severe food shortages.

Antara quoted a local official as saying that villagers in the Lemola subdistrict, the worst-hit area of Southeast Maluku regency, have been forced to forage for yams and fruit in the forest for the past month.

"The drought has threatened 81,840 people in at least 130 villages in seven of eight subdistricts in Southeast Maluku," WM Parinussa, the head of the local social services office, told the news agency.

Parinussa said his office had distributed a total of 11.25 tons of rice to all of the drought-hit villages. However, he admitted that the relief was far from enough.

In Lemola, Parinussa said, even forest fruit and yams had become scarcer, making the villagers even more vulnerable to the harsh effects of the drought than those in other subdistricts.

He said villagers in Lemola had begun selling their livestock at low prices to the cattle market in East Timor's capital Dili.

He said no deaths had been reported yet, but clean water was scarce in some villages, including those scattered on tiny islands.

In Moa Island, where the drought-hit village of Kelis is located, at least 50 rare Moa buffaloes had died during the past month, Antara reported.

Lemola villagers have also been forced to sell the rare buffaloes to markets in Dili with an average price of about Rp 100,000 (US$20) -- much lower than the normal price of Rp 700,000.

Another Antara dispatch from Jayapura said that the government had sent a large shipment of food supplies to Irian Jaya where more than 150,000 people are threatened by food shortages.

The government also pledged to send 23 small aircraft to help distribute food to the most isolated villages only accessible by air, it was reported.

Saturday's relief effort was sponsored by the Dharmais foundation headed by President Soeharto. The supplies were handed over by Minister of Social Services Inten Soeweno to JB Wenas, the head of the Jayawijaya regency -- the hardest hit of the four regencies affected by the drought.

The aid consisted of 12.5 tons of instant cassava grain, one ton of iodized salt, 4,000 coconuts and cooking equipment.

Drought-related diseases such as diarrhea and malaria have already claimed 657 lives, as reported by the media, in four regencies in Irian Jaya, while food shortages there are threatening 150,000 people, officials have said.

The Jayawijaya regency reported 447 deaths, the Merauke regency 92, while 15 died in the Puncak Jaya regency. A joint team from the Indonesian Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last month said that another 103 people had died of drought-related ailments since October in Mimika regency. (aan)