Reduction in air services may cause famine in Irian Jaya

Reduction in air services may cause famine in Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): An official has warned Irian Jaya, especially
Jayawijaya regency, could suffer a repeat of last year's famine
because ample food stocks may be depleted by the grounding of
commercial and missionary airline flights during the crisis.

Moch. Santoso, the head of the provincial State Logistics
Agency (Dolog), was quoted by Antara news agency as saying in the
capital of Jayapura on Sunday that his office relied on the
Army's Hercules aircraft to transport rice rations for civil
servants and the local community in Wamena, the capital of
Jayawijaya. Much of the mountainous province is inaccessible by
land.

"Commercial airlines have stopped their service," he said.
"Without the Hercules flight to Wamena, people in the remote area
will surely starve."

Airlines which have stopped flights to Wamena are Airfast,
Trigana and SMAC. Merpati Nusantara Airlines has reduced its
weekly flights from seven to two.

Santoso also said his office held regular market operations to
sell rice at the subsidized price of Rp 1,000 per kilogram for
153,000 poor families in Jayawijaya. The average price elsewhere
is Rp 4,000 per kilogram.

He said 750 metric tons of rice was set aside for market
operations. The same program was also being conducted for the
poor living in coastal areas, using the Navy's patrol and pioneer
ships.

Irian Jaya has a stock of 55,000 tons of rice, projected to be
enough to last the province's two million inhabitants for the
next eight months, he said.

Some of the stock was imported and part was donated by Japan.
The province also has a further 17,000 tons of rice produced by
local farmers in Merauke regency.

Irian also has a stockpile of 18,000 metric tons of sugar,
enough to last three months, and wheat flour stocks of 15,000
metric tons, sufficient for two months.

"Irian is not among those facing food shortages," he said.

Last week, Santoso's colleague Abulebu said the province had
sufficient stocks of rice and other staple foods despite the
crisis and attendant food shortages.

Last year, the El Nino weather phenomenon caused severe
drought in many parts of the country, including Irian Jaya, where
starvation and disease killed 700 people.

The government has insisted that nationwide rice stocks are
sufficient to last the country's 202 million people for the next
eight months. Public stocks currently total seven million tons
and an additional 2.2 million tons are held by the State
Logistics Agency.

Separately, Governor Freddy Numberi said on Monday in
Manokwari it was high time Irian Jaya was granted full autonomy
in a bid to avert unrest.

"All this time, the results of (exploitation) of Irian Jaya
resources have all been funneled to (Jakarta), so the Irianese
are now facing the threat of poverty," he was quoted by Antara as
saying.

He said autonomy would serve as a breakthrough to empower the
people and allow them to catch up in development gains with other
provinces.

He also said billions of U.S. dollars from the province were
absorbed by the central government and others. He also pointed
out how American gold and copper mining company PT Freeport
Indonesia -- which makes US$1.5 billion annually -- had increased
its monthly production of 150,000 tons of ore to 300,000 tons.

"Imagine if only $1 billion, or Rp 11 trillion, was given by
the central government to the province. Our people would be
prosperous, we could even help people from other provinces ... so
we wouldn't need loans from the IMF (International Monetary
Fund)," he said.

The poverty of the people of Irian Jaya, in contrast to the
province's vast natural wealth, left it prone to unrest because
its population believed they were treated unfairly, he said.

"Please realize that in Indonesian's history, Irian is the
country's inseparable part... it's not true our people want
independence," he said. (25/swe)