Thousands of tribal people face food crisis in Maluku

JAKARTA (JP): The drought has forced thousands of members of three isolated tribes on Mangole Island, Maluku, to venture beyond their temporary settlements to seek food, Antara reported Saturday.

Umar Hassan, a subdistrict head, estimated that the nomadic tribes of Kadai, Siboyo and Mangei had some 1,700 members.

They have not yet received assistance from the Ministry of Social Services, he said, because they were always on the move.

He speculated that one of the reasons they moved so often was because of the presence of a large timber industry, owned by Barito Pacific group, on the island.

Every time logging activities began the tribes moved to another place, he said.

The long dry spell, which experts say may last well into next month, has created a host of problems for Indonesia.

The drought has caused forest fires that have raged across more than 300,000 hectares sending up smoke and the health- threatening haze that has affected many cities in the country and the region.

It has also caused crop failures and outbreaks of illness in many parts of the country.

Diarrhea and malaria have killed at least 80 villagers in one week in Irian Jaya, where drought and a lack of clean water continue to threaten the lives of thousands.

The death toll from diarrhea in the Merauke district in southern Irian Jaya has climbed from 58 to 74 in less than a week as smoke from smoldering fires continues to hamper relief efforts, the Kompas daily reported.

Relief supply missions have been obstructed for months by hailstorms and smoke from forest fires around the province.

In the mountainous region of central Irian Jaya, six people including two infants died from malaria last week, Antara quoted Jayawijaya Regent Jos Buas Wenas as saying.

Wenas warned that malaria was spreading rapidly, threatening the lives of 90,000 people in the Jayawijaya district where more than 400 people this year have died from drought-related diseases and famine.

The latest deaths bring the number of fatalities to more than 500 this year in Irian Jaya, one of Indonesia's most underdeveloped provinces.

Most of the province's two million inhabitants adhere to a traditional subsistence way of life.

Meanwhile, two fires that began a week ago were still raging yesterday in national parks in the North and Central Lampung regencies.

Firefighters were unable to reach the fires because of difficult terrain.

"The most difficult fire to put out is the one occurring in Way Kambas National Park because it's peat land," said Sjamsuddin Rachmat of the Lampung forestry office.

He estimated that the fires had so far destroyed hundreds of hectares of forest.

In Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, the head of the provincial tourism office, Ibnu Darmawan, said that smog had caused thousands of prospective tourists to cancel their trips to the region.

He said he was concerned that the province may not meet its target of 57,000 tourists this year. (42/swe)