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)