Resettlers face problems

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya: Most transmigrants from within Irian Jaya are less successful than the more skilled resettlers from areas outside of Irian Jaya, an official says.

Antara quoted M.R. Rambu of the city administration as saying yesterday that the Irianese resettlers had yet to reach a standard of living equal to the newcomers'.

"It's too bad that the transmigration program here has yet to create a better life for the resettlers and the locals," he said.

He also called on the transmigration authorities to help the more skillful newcomers from Java, Bali and East Nusa Tenggara to cooperate with the locals, who hold more land.

This year the government is to send more transmigrants than ever before to sparsely populated Irian Jaya from overcrowded Java, Bali and Madura.

Irian will take most of this years transmigrants, around 9,000 families, according to Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo earlier this month.

Last year his office moved 49,332 families, or 210,000 people, to a number of areas in the archipelago.

Irian Jaya's 421,981 square kilometers are populated by only two million people with a density of four people per square kilometer. Java, in comparison, has 115 million people cramped into an area of 132,186 square kilometers. The population density is 870 per square kilometer. (swe)