Timika problems are 'complicated issues'

Timika problems are 'complicated issues'

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights
attributed the recent intertribal tension that hit the Irian Jaya
town of Timika partly to the local administration's inefficiency.

Commission deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman, who had just
returned from a trip to the town in Mimika regency, said
yesterday that problems that often arose in the region were due
to issues "more complicated" than mere locals' intolerance of the
presence of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia.

He pointed out that many tribes in the region were facing
division because of the poor management of local administrations.

Four people died in Timika late last month, including two in
riots that local leaders linked to the rising tension over the
disbursement of a development fund by Freeport. Rp 2.3 billion
(US$800,000) was involved, which was meant to be divided among
the tribes.

Last year, 12 people died when tribal warfare broke out in
connection with a dispute over the company's 1 percent
development program fund.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Coordinating Minister for
Political Affairs and Security Soesilo Soedarman, Marzuki did not
make any reference to the fund.

"We (the commission) concluded that the orientation of the
Irian Jaya administration shifted from that of national interest,
to an orientation (which stressed the interests) of local
tribes," Marzuki said.

He did not elaborate but said that "it's a serious problem
that should be immediately handled by the central government in
order to prevent national disintegration and division among
Irianese communities".

Marzuki said the commission told the government about "the
minimal role of the local administration... (and it's)
ineffectiveness in handling the interests and needs of the local
people."

"A special effort is needed to discuss how we can accelerate
the local administration's role in handling increasingly
complicated problems there," he said.

Timika was the fastest growing region in Indonesia, he
reminded.

Marzuki also said that some people had simplified the problem
in Timika as mere tension arising because of local people's
intolerance of companies operating there, including Freeport.

Marzuki also said the commission recommended that the
government raise the status of the Mimika "administrative
regency" to that of an "autonomous regency", equipped with its
own legislative council, prosecutor's office and district court.

"That way, people could really feel protected by the local
administration," Marzuki said.

Freeport mining, 90 percent owned by its United States-based
headquarters and 10 percent by the Indonesian government, sits on
the largest gold deposit in the world in Grasberg, which is about
80 kilometers north of Timika.

On whether the commission had found any human rights
violations in last month's incidents, Marzuki said the commission
"was still probing the case".

In 1995, the commission found several major human rights
violations in the deaths of 12 local tribespeople in Mapnduma and
had recommended that responsible parties be brought to court.
(imn/aan)