President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono heeft Coördinerende Minister voor welzijn Aburizal Bakrie en Minister van binnenlandse zaken Muhammed Mar’ruf opgedragen om voedsel en medicijnen naar regentaat Yahokimo in Papua te verzenden, waar naar verluidt 55 mensen zijn verhongerd.De presidentiële woordvoerder Andi Mallarangeng zei op vrijdag dat de opdracht was uitgegeven door de president na het zien van een reportage over de situatie op televisie donderdagavond.
De president droeg Ma’ruf ook op om te weten te komen wat er in Yahokimo is gebeurd, waarom het gebeurde en de maatregelen die moeten worden getroffen om de situatie te verbeteren. De president heeft Aburizal gevraagd persoonlijk naar Papua te vliegen om zeker te zijn dat medicijnen en voedsel terecht komt bij de mensen die het werkelijk nodig hebben.De President droeg ook alle regionale overheidsbureaus op om directe maatregelen te nemen om de situatie onder controle te krijgen.
(Bron: The Jakarta Post.)
Toevallig net vanmiddag een snelle vertaling gemaakt van een bericht uit het :Kompas"
In de Indonesische media verschenen er vandaag berichten over een grote hongersnood in het district Yahokimo (Jayawijaya)
Sinds 11 november zijn hier 55 mensen overleden. Het district telt 200.000 inwoners waarvan er 15.000 met de hongersdood bedreigd worden.
Door onvoorziene omstandigheden kon de ubi niet op tijd geplant worden en daarom is de oogst te laat, met alle nare gevolgen van dien. Normaal eten de mensen daar “kelapa hutan” doch door seizoensverandering waren deze er dit jaar niet. De bewoners hadden niets geplant om dit gemis op te vangen. Normaal gesproken hoeven zij voor hun eten niets anders te doen dan dit uit het bos te halen. Ze bleven gewoon wachten totdat de “kelapa hutan” weer verscheen. In het moeilijk bereikbare gebied zijn er ook geen markten waar voedsel gekocht kan worden. De regering heeft inmiddels rijst, medicijnen en medische hulp gestuurd. De gezondheidstoestand van veel mensen is slecht. TBC en andere infecties van de longwegen, dysenterie en malaria teisteren het gebied. In het gebied zijn geen medische hulpposten.
PS Ik heb even een snelle vertaling gemaakt, ik weet alleen niet wat de vertaling van “kelapa hutan” is, ja bosklapper of wilde klapper, maar of dat een Nederlands woord is, is mij niet bekend.
Van Kabar Irian:
Antara
Dec 09 21:05
Govt Sending Food to Famine-Stricken Yakuhimo District in Papua
Jakarta (Antara News)- The government on Friday evening sent food supplies
to the famine-stricken district of Yakuhimo in Papua where about 55
residents had reportedly starved to death.
“We are sending food to help the famine victims. The Coordinating Minister
for People’s Welfare will also leave for Papua (at 21 p.m),” the
minister’s spokesman, Rizal Malarangeng, said here Friday evening.
The relief assistance would be flown by a Hercules airplane from Halim
Perdanakusuma airport. It consists of 5,000 packs of instant noodles,
2,000 cans of tinned sardines, 2,000 bottles of soy sauce, 2,000 bottles
of chili sauce, 250 bottles of cooking oil, 5,000 sheets of blankets and
2.5 tons of baby food.
Malarangeng also said four medical workers would be sent from Merauke, one
ton of rice from Asmat district, eight tons of rice from Papua, and three
tons of cassava would also be sent to the famine affected district of
Yakuhimo.
It was reported that 55 residents in the district had starved to death due
shortage of food and 112 others were in critical condition by starvation.
“This is according to reports from missionaries. We have to check these
reeports again. But we will face difficult geographic conditions to reach
the district,” he said.
Yakuhimo, which consists of three sub-districts and 90 rural villages, has
a population of 142,000.
About 50,000 residents now staying in 17 locations are near starvation due
to drought that caused them to delay their crop harvests.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
09 Dec 2005
Indonesia rushes food supplies to Papua province
Emergency food and medical supplies are being rushed to the Indonesian
province of Papua after revelations that at least 55 people there have
starved to death.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is demanding answers on how the tragedy
could have happened.
Our correspondent in Jakarta, Peter Cave, says the deaths occurred in
Yahukimo, which lies in the centre of Papua, formerly know as Irian Jaya.
Social Welfare Minister Bakrie has been despatched to oversee the
provision of emergency food and medical aid, being ferried into the remote
region by helicopter from Jayapura.
A spokesman for the World Food Program in Jakarta says it stands ready to
assist if requested to do so.
President Yudhoyono has ordered his internal affairs minister to
investigate how the deaths were allowed to happen and to ensure that other
regions of Papua are not at risk.
He says if the deaths have been caused by officials neglecting their duty
then that is unforgivable.
The minister deplored the slow of implementation of efforts to anticipate
Antara
Dec 09 17:31
House Speaker Blames Death of Famine Victims on Their Leaders
Jakarta (Antara News)- House Speaker Agung Laksono has said that the death
of about 50 famine victims in Yahokimo, Papua province, is caused by
negligence of their leaders.
"In my capacity as House speaker, I here with express my disappointment
over the death of over 50 famine victims because of negligence of their
leaders," Agung Laksono told reporters at the Parliamentary building here
on Friday.
The House Speaker said that the Ministry of Social Affairs must take
immediate actions under the coordination of the Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare to help overcome the famine problem in the Papua
province.
He said that if natural disasters such as floods affected the people, it
would be understandable. But if what happened was famine, then it
indicated that there were mistakes in the government's infrastructures so
that the incident was taking place undetected.
Agung suggested that the government should improve the existing
infrastructural facilities to open isolations of villagers in remote areas
so that they would no longer experience protracted shortage of food.
A total of 58 people starved to death in Yahokimo district which has a
population of 55,000 because of shortage of tuber stock as a result of
delays in the planting of the crops.
These villages are only accessible so far by airplanes.
In the meantime, Social Affairs Minister Bachtiar Chamsah said five tons
of rice had been sent to Yahokimo to help famine victims.
"Eight more tons of rice will be despatched soon," the minister said.
The Social Affairs Ministry was also planning to send instant noodles and
sweet potatoes to Timika, a transit area before the food is distributed to
Yahokimo, he said.
Chamsah said his ministry had a stock of 50 tons of rice in every province
in the country to help victims of disasters such as famine. He expressed
surprise that the local government had been too slow to help the victims
of the food shortage.
He said the Papua food shortage was not due to drought but to too much
rain which had caused sweet potatoes, the main staple food of the Papua
people, to rot in the ground.