Relief aid reaches starving Papuans in remote regency

Relief aid reaches starving Papuans in remote regency

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Aid began arriving in a remote area of Papua on Sunday after bad
weather prevented food and medicine from reaching starving
Papuans on Saturday, while the health minister denied any cases
of malnutrition had been detected in Yahukimo regency.

Carried aboard Army helicopters, the aid was unloaded in
Sumantanto, the capital of Yahukimo regency. The operation was
overseen by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal
Bakrie and other ministers, Antara news agency reported.

Meanwhile in the city of Wamena, several Cessna aircraft
belonging to missionary groups and two helicopters belonging to
the Army and PT Freeport Indonesia have been deployed to carry
food, medical supplies and health workers to famine-stricken
areas in Yahukimo.

The failure of the recent sweet potato crop has been blamed
for the spread of famine in the mountainous regency of 55,000
people. The regency can only be reached by aircraft and food aid,
medicine and blankets have been stranded in Wamena, the nearest
large town to Yahukimo, for the last several days.

But Papuan leaders have blamed the local and central
governments for ignoring their people, leading to the famine.
They say this tragedy is evidence the huge sums of money flowing
into the province under regional autonomy have only benefited the
elite of Papua.

Yahukimo Regent Ones Pahabol, who made news of the famine
public by alerting the media that at least 55 people in the
regency had died of malnutrition and 112 others had fallen sick
from related illnesses since November, declined to answer
questions on Sunday.

According to the head of Yahukimo's health office, Jacobus
Mari, most residents in famine-affected areas were showing
symptoms of malnutrition, as well as suffering from tuberculosis,
malaria and skin conditions.

He said a medical team of 10 doctors was scheduled for
deployment to Yahukimo from neighboring regencies. "The medical
team will be leaving on Monday, if the weather permits," he told
The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered officials on Friday
to ensure the immediate disbursement of food and medicine to the
regency, ordering Aburizal to investigate the causes of the
famine and determine what needed to be done to help the people of
Yahukimo. He also warned local leaders in Papua that they would
be held accountable for allowing this tragedy to occur.

Meanwhile, contrary to previous reports and despite the
ongoing aid efforts, Minister of Health Siti Fadilah Supari said
there were no signs of starvation in Yahukimo and no evidence
that 55 people had died of malnutrition in the regency.

Speaking in Jombang, East Java, on Sunday, she said a medical
team had been deployed to the regency but found no evidence of
starvation, Antara reported.

"There are sick children but not because of starvation. The 55
people who (reportedly) died, maybe that was an accumulative
figure," she said during a ceremony to mark the opening of the
Nahdlatul Ulama Sayyid Abdurrahman Medical Center in Mojoagung,
Jombang.

She said there were people in Yahukimo who were sick, but they
were not suffering from malnutrition. She added that the people
who were ill were receiving treatment at a hospital in Wamena.

Apart from medicine, she said the ministry had also provided
food and drinks for the people being treated at the Wamena
hospital, as well as sending medical supplies to Yahukimo.

"We have been monitoring the situation for the last six months
because if we waited for local government there might be more
victims," she said.