Over 81,000 face famine in Maluku

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)