[Kabar-Irian] News: Dec 18 - 21 2007
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KABAR IRIAN NEWS
Dec 18 - 21 2007
TOPICS
* Indo Cops Arrest, Torture & Kill W. Papuan People
* Papua (Indonesia): Genocide by Demographics
* ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Rescued Pademelons Reach Home
* Powes Parkop slams the Papua media 'taboo'
* Aust surgeons 'delighted' by sight-restoring success
* World-first surgery saves boy's eyesight
* New Era For Papua Border Market
---
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0712/S00944.htm
Indo Cops Arrest, Torture & Kill W. Papuan People
Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 11:04 am
Press Release: Survival International
Police arrest, torture and kill Papuan tribal people
Police in West Papua are killing, torturing and intimidating the
province's tribal people with impunity.
Police shot dead two Papuan women and injured another as they protested on
5 December near the
British and American-owned Freeport mine.
Less than two weeks before the shootings, the UN special rapporteur on
torture said he had found
evidence of Papuan detainees being electrocuted, suffering systematic
beatings and even being shot in
the legs at close range. He said the police were the main culprits.
There are also increasing reports of 'mysterious' and 'accidental'
killings, and abductions and assaults of
young Papuan women by military and police forces.
None of the government officials the special rapporteur met in Indonesia
could cite a single case in
which a police officer had been found guilty and sentenced by a criminal
court for abuse of a detainee,
despite the practice being widespread and systematic.
Human rights defender and lawyer, Sabar Iwanggin, has been charged with
'insulting the President' in a
text message he forwarded to a friend. The message had already been
circulated around thousands of
Papuans. Sabar Iwanggin worked with the respected human rights
organisation, Elsham West Papua.
Elsham staff have been repeatedly intimidated and have received death
threats.
Survival is concerned for the safety of Sabar Iwanggin whilst he awaits
trial, and for the safety of others
who stand up for the rights of the tribal peoples of West Papua.
ENDS
---
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2007/s07120128.htm
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Papua (Indonesia): Genocide by Demographics
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- If present demographic trends continue, West Papua
(formerly Irian Jaya) will be
majority Indonesian (mostly Javanese) Muslim by 2011, and the indigenous
Melanesian predominantly
Protestant Christian Papuans will be a dwindling 15 percent minority by
2030. This was recently forecast
in a conference at the University of Sydney (NSW, Australia) by Political
Scientist Dr Jim Elmslie of the
West Papua Project, which is based at the University of Sydney Centre for
Peace and Conflict Studies
(CPACS).
Dr Elmslie also notes however that this forecast may prove unduly
optimistic as it does not take into
account the escalating HIV-AIDS infection rate amongst the Papuans or
their declining population
growth rate. In other words, the annihilation of the Papuans may be even
more imminent than the
demographic trends suggest. (Note: The Indonesian military introduced AIDS
into the Papuan population
by bringing in AIDS-infected Javanese prostitutes which they establish in
Papuan villages and frequently
use as currency.)
The issue of the decline in the Papuan population growth rate warrants
further investigation and will
possibly be the subject of a WEA RLC News & Analysis posting early in
2008. Several sources attest
that Indonesia is targeting UN-funded family planning programs at the
Papuan population, particularly in
sensitive areas such as around the Freeport mine and in other areas slated
for clearing and
development.
According to Dr Elmslie, highland Papuans who allegedly have gonorrhoea
are being treated in UN-
funded family planning clinics -- but not for gonorrhoea. They are being
injected instead with long-term
contraceptive drugs. As Dr Elmslie notes, this goes some way to explaining
why the 1.67 percent
population growth rate for Melanesian Papuans in West Papua is so much
lower in than over the 2.6
percent population growth rate for Melanesian Papuans over the border in
Papua New Guinea (PNG).
(Meanwhile, the growth rate for the non-Papuan population in West Papua is
10.5 percent.)
In the highlands of Papua, where maternal and family health services and
pharmacies are virtually non-
existent, it is tragic that the UN would focus its efforts on controlling
and limiting rather than serving and
treasuring humanity. And of course, it is not difficult to imagine how
such a program could be exploited.
Meanwhile, the issue of the genocide of the predominantly Christian
Papuans must become an issue of
urgency for the Church. The governments of the USA, Britain and Australia,
as well as other nations and
bodies such as the UN, have geo-political and economic interests that pull
them towards a preference
for the status quo, regardless of consequences. By their action and
inaction they are complicit and find
the truth and immorality surrounding the betrayal and genocide of a
Christian people a most
inconvenient truth indeed. The Church must act by making Papua a prayer
priority and such an
advocacy priority that the Papuans (like the South Sudanese and Iraq's
Assyrians) become a domestic
political issue that cannot be ignored. Indonesia must respect Papua's
Special Autonomy status, and
aggressive colonisation, militarisation and Islamisation must end.
As Dr Elmslie notes in his paper, the Genocide Convention of 1951 defines
genocide as that which is
"committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group"
(Article II), and those interested in maintaining the status quo will
focus on the word "intent" in order to
argue that if intent cannot be proved then genocide cannot be claimed.
The issue of intent however has no bearing on the reality or outcome. As
Dr Elmslie argues, semantics
about whether or not there is "intent" should not stop the international
community from recognising that
an immense tragedy is unfolding in Papua, gross human rights abuses are
occurring and the Papuans
are being annihilated.
The most decisive statement to date on the subject of genocide in West
Papua has come from the Allard
K Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School, which in
2005 published a paper
entitled "Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the
Law of Genocide to the
History of Indonesian Control." (Link 1)
Quoting from page 72: "Although no single act or set of acts can be said
to have constituted genocide,
per se, and although the required intent cannot be as readily inferred as
it was in the cases of the
Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide, there can be little doubt that the
Indonesian government has
engaged in a systematic pattern of acts that has resulted in harm to --
and indeed the destruction of -- a
substantial part of the indigenous population of West Papua.
"The inevitability of this result was readily obvious, and the government
has taken no active measures to
contravene. According to current understanding of the Genocide Convention,
including its interpretation
in the jurisprudence of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals, such
a pattern of actions and inactions
-- of acts and omissions --supports the conclusion that the Indonesian
government has acted with the
necessary intent to find that it has perpetrated genocide against the
people of West Papua."
PAPUA: GENOCIDE BY DEMOGRAPHICS
The West Papua Project, based at the University of Sydney (NSW, Australia)
Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies (CPACS), "seeks to promote peaceful dialogue between the
people of West Papua and
Indonesia, and to promote conflict resolution as a viable alternative to
the current and escalating
conflict." (Link 2)
On 9-10 August, Indonesian Solidarity in association with the West Papua
Project (CPACS) organised a
conference entitled "West Papua 2007: Paths to Justice and Prosperity".
The papers presented at that
conference are available on the West Papua Project website (link 2) under
the heading "West Papua
Conference".
All those who are concerned about the future of the predominantly
Protestant Christian West Papuans
would be interested in these papers.
The following is an excerpt from Dr Jim Elmslie's paper, "West Papua:
Genocide, Demographic
Change, the Issue of 'Intent', and the Australia-Indonesia Security
Treaty". (Link 3: direct link)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EXCERPT: DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION IN WEST PAPUA
By Dr Jim Elmslie
Over the last 43 years in West Papua there have been many killings;
disappearances; land
expropriations and repressive Indonesian government policies that have
severely affected the
demographics of the province. . .
In 1971 there were 887,000 'Irian born' (Papuan) people in West Papua and
36,000 'non-Irian born'
(Asian Indonesians), out of a total population of 923,000. This meant
that, even after eight years of
Indonesian control, Papuans comprised 96% of the population in 1971.
Thereafter the distinction between Irian born and non-Irian became less
relevant as, obviously, children
of non-Irian born migrants were Irian born. I have derived the figure for
the Papuan population in the
1990 census by dividing the population into those who speak Bahasa
Indonesia as a 'mother tongue' and
those who do not. This is because the census does not record the racial
profile of the province. On this
basis there were 1,215,897 Papuans and 414,210 non-Papuans in 1990 out of
a total population of
1,630,107. Papuans comprised 74.6% of the total and non-Papuans 25.4%.
The growth in the Papuan population from 887,000 to 1,215,897 during the
period from 1971 to 1990
represents an annual growth rate of 1.67%. Assuming that this growth rate
continued to 2005, the latest
figures released by the Indonesian Statistics Office, the Papua population
would be 1,558,795 out of a
total population of 2,646,48914 and the non-Papuan population 1,087,694.
This means that Papuans
comprised 59% of the population and non-Papuans 41% in 2005.
This analysis shows that the Papuan population has diminished as a
proportion of the population from
96% to 59%, and the non-Papuan increased from 4% to 41%. This represents a
growth in the Papuan
population from 887,000 to 1,558,795 for the period 1971 to 2005, or
75.7%. By contrast the non-
Papuan sector of the population has increased from 36,000 to 1,087,694, a
growth of 3021% or more
than 30 times. This represents an annual growth rate in the non-Papuan
population of 10.5% from 1971
to 2005.
Using the two growth rates for the Papuan and non-Papuan populations,
1.67% and 10.5% respectively,
we can predict future population growth and relative percentages of the
two groups. By 2011 out of a
total population of 3.7 million, Papuans would be a minority of 47.5% at
1.7 million and non-Papuans a
majority at 1.98 million, or 53.5%. This non-Papuan majority will increase
to 70.8% by 2020 out of a
population of 6.7 million. By 2030 Papuans will comprise just 15.2% of a
total population of 15.6 million,
while non-Papuans will number 13.2 million, or 84.8%. This may be an
unduly optimistic forecast for the
Papuan population as the current HIVAIDS epidemic is firmly established in
that population group and
could have an African-style impact, cutting numbers and growth rates even
further.
Besides the relative decline of the Papuans as a percentage of the
population they have also enjoyed a
much lower growth rate than a very similar Melanesian Papuan population
across the border in Papua
New Guinea. Here the population has been growing at 2.6% per annum since
independence in 1975.
PNG acts almost as a control population when examining Papuan growth rates
as the indigenous people
on both sides of the border are closely related and settled in societies
that had, until very recently, been
self-contained for thousands of years. If the Papuans under Indonesian
control had enjoyed the same
growth rate as those in independent Papua New Guinea, 2.6%, their
population would be 2,122,921, or
564,126 more than it was in 2005. This demographic discrepancy can be
attributed to Indonesian rule.
Thus from a position of comprising 96% of the total population in 1971,
Papuans will be a small and
dwindling minority within a generation or two. This will have great
consequences for Papua New Guinea
as Indonesian military/business groups engage ever more deeply in that
country, particularly in the
logging and retail industries. With the increasing militarisation of West
Papua, particularly in the border
regions, PNG's own security may come under threat.
------------------------------------------------
Dr Elmslie fears the situation in West Papua, where Asian Muslims are
completely dominating the
military, education and business realms and where two distinct peoples are
increasingly on a collision
course, is heading toward a "large scale, copybook genocide in the near
future. With 'intent'."
This has been the fear of Papuans and religious liberty observers for some
time. The Indonesian military
(TNI), through barbaric killings and other acts of terror, is constantly
attempting to provoke the Papuans
into a response or a rebellion that would then provide the TNI with a
pretext for wide-scale massacres in
the name of curtailing the separatist threat and defending Indonesian
security and sovereignty.
Papuan church leaders, who are the primary source of leadership for the
Papuans, are doing a
phenomenal job of keeping the traumatised Papuans restrained, committed to
non-violence, and focused
on God in hope. They will undoubtedly inherit a peace prize from the Lord
when they meet him.
Meanwhile the TNI is busy not only provoking but manipulating and
exploiting naive Papuan patriots by
arming them and sending them to kill -- as was the case in the August 2002
Freeport mine incident (see
link 4).
In such an explosive environment, "peace" (as in the absence of wide-scale
slaughter) can not be taken
for granted. An outrageous but very convenient (for some) holocaust is
only a spark away.
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
Links
1) Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of
Genocide to the History
of Indonesian Control.
A paper prepared for the Indonesia Human Rights Network
By the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School
http://www.freewestpapua.org/docs/genocide.pdf
2) Papua Project
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/centres/cpacs/research/wpp.shtml
3) West Papua: Genocide, Demographic Change, the Issue of 'Intent', and
the Australia-Indonesia
Security Treaty. By Dr. Jim Elmslie.
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/centres/cpacs/docs/Indo%20Solidarity%20paper.pdf
4) Papua: Indonesia, the TNI and the USA.
By Elizabeth Kendal WEA RLC, 2 March 2007
http://www.worldevangelicals.org/news/view.htm?id=936
Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World
Evangelical Alliance Religious
Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) http://www.worldevangelicalalliance.com. This
article was initially written
for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
mailing list.
Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.
---
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40548
ENVIRONMENT-INDONESIA: Rescued Pademelons Reach Home
By Kafil Yamin
MERAUKE, Papua, Indonesia, Dec 20 (IPS) - When Hendrik and Hesty flew into
the local airport here
earlier this month, they were given a ceremonial welcome with Papuan
warriors in full battle regalia
hopping about to the tune of traditional martial music.
The warriors fell into two rows as the director of Freeport environmental
division Johnny Prewitt, head of
conservation bureau of Indonesian forestry ministry Awrya Ibrahim and
Danish (one name), chief of the
Wasur National Park, and executive staff from the Cikananga Animal Rescue
Centre (PPSC) in West
Java emerged.
But the cynosure of all eyes was Hendrik and Hesty, rescued from the
clutches of wildlife traders four
years ago, and their extended family of 21 Papuan dusky pademelon, being
returned to their natural
habitat on Indonesian Papua.
Pademelons, wallabies,and kangaroos are similar in body structure, and the
names refer to marsupials
of three different size groups. Besides their smaller size, pademelons are
distinguished from wallabies
by their shorter, thicker and sparsely- furred tails.
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has placed pademelons in the
'vulnerable' list of animals that face
a high risk of extinction in the medium-term, though no time period has
been estimated.
The trade in rare and exotic animals from Papua and other areas of
Indonesia is rampant due largely to
poor law enforcement. Rapid deforestation and commercial development also
threaten better known
species such as the Sumatran tiger, elephant, rhino and orangutan.
During their rehabilitation period at the PPSC, the Hendriks joined
several other pademelon similarly
rescued from the underground animal trade. During their stay at the PPSC,
Hesty delivered several
joeys adding to the brood.
The PPSC workers knew that Hendrik, Hesty, their joeys and relatives must
eventually return to Papua
island where pademelons are endemic. Long and careful preparations were
made for their return,
though it was not easy because of a serious lack of funds for the
operation. That was when the United
States-based mining company Freeport offered a helping hand.
Pratita Puradyatmika, executive of the environmental division at Freeport
told IPS: ''We are highly
concerned with what the animals have been going through. We want to see
them free in their own world.
This is our commitment to the biodiversity of Papua.'' Papua island is
split between Indonesian Papua
and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Kanguru Tanah, as the locals call dusky pademelon, are among the most
hunted animals in the world
thanks to their attractiveness and charm. Smaller in size compared with
Australian kangaroos, they are
easy to care for and breed. In the black market, an individual dusky
pademelon fetches around 150 US
dollars.
Indonesia is widely known for its great biodiversity. It is estimated that
around 300,000 animal species
inhabit the country's many ecosystems. This is equal to 17 percent of
worldwide fauna species. With
515 species, Indonesia has more mammalian types than any other nation.
There are 1,539 bird species
and 50 percent of the world's fish species can be found in its marine and
freshwater systems.
Indonesia is also home to some of the world's most endangered species. The
IUCN lists as endangered
147 mammals, 114 birds, 91 fish and 21 invertebrate species found in
Indonesia.
Trade in wild animals is a serious threat to Indonesia's biodiversity.
According to ProFauna, a non-
government organisation (NGO) working on animal conservation, over 95
percent of animals sold in
markets are taken directly from the wild, not from captive breeding
stocks. More than 20 percent of the
captured animals die even before they reach the market.
The total value of Indonesia's illegal animal trade is unknown, but animal
activists say hundreds of
creatures are sold each month despite protection under the Convention on
International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES).
When the Hendrik family was finally transferred to Papua, they were first
placed for four months in
temporary quarantine in Narayo village under the tender care of Herman
(one name), the village head.
Herman loved the pademelons and they loved him in return. Each time Herman
showed up in the
quarantine, they would surround him, not always for food but also for his
caresses. And Hesty produced
four more joeys.
Herman always knew that some day he would have to let them go. There were
tears in his eyes when
that day, Dec. 9, arrived. ''I know they would be happier in the wild, but
it's not easy to see them go. I
love them very much, and I am sure they love me too,'' Herman told IPS.
>From the airport, the Hendrik family was taken to the Wasur National
Park. Here the 21-member family
was greeted with an even bigger ceremony. There was singing and dancing by
Papuan warriors and a
speech by Merauke's administrator John Gluba Gebze. ''The lost
(pademelons) have returned to their
motherland of Merauke. We hope they can unite again with their brothers
and sisters. We hope they will
soon multiply.''
''They are a part of this habitat. They are part of our life. Their
existence makes our lives beautiful and
colorful,'' Gebze added with emotion.
The Hendriks, carried in six cages, were taken into the national park, and
Gebze was given the task of
opening the cage doors and giving the animals their freedom. A host of TV
cameramen and
photographers stood ready to capture the historical moment when the
animals would bolt into the forest.
But they stayed put and had to be coaxed out of their cages. For a few
moments they looked surprised,
shocked and confused. Tears welled up in Herman's eyes. ''They are not yet
ready to go into the wild,''
he said unhappily.
But the cages clanged shut and were removed from the park. Only time will
tell if the Hendriks were able
to survive their return to the wild or fell prey, once again, to animal
traders.
(END/2007)
---
http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2007/10/powes-parkop-slams-papua-
media-taboo
.html
Cafe Pacific
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2007/10/powes-parkop-slams-papua-
media-tabo
o.html> Powes Parkop slams the Papua media 'taboo'
<http://bp3.blogger.com/_FW-
NEhC11CI/RwLWE3xA5gI/AAAAAAAAAGk/nMhVAVlI3A0/s16
00-h/west_papua_sharpe.jpg> Good to see PNG's new National Capital
District
governor Powes Parkop having a
<http://www.postcourier.com.pg/20071001/mohome.htm> crack at the
local media
for its appalling job in recent times at covering the plight of
their 'bros
across the border in Indonesian-controlled
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Papua> Papua. The issue of
10,000 or so
displaced <http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/> West Papuans and their
requests
remains a festering sore. And the PNG media haven't done enough to
address
the problem and ensure it is on the agenda for weak-kneed
politicians.
Ironical, because there are many influential Papuan journalists in
the PNG
media industry and in the past they have prodded local newspapers,
radio and
TV into keeping an eye on the Papuan problem. Powes always
<http://www.infopapua.org/> supported the Papuans in their struggle
for
self-determination right from his
<http://www.ecsiep.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&;
Itemid=2
7> Melanesian Solidarity activist and human rights legal work days.
Now we
wish him luck in the to job at NCD. He took advantage of the
launching of
PNG's 'Let's do it' media expo 2007 to slam the media for accepting
Papua as
a "taboo" topic. He wasn't too full of platitudes about the
coverage of the
decade-long war on Bougainville, which ended in 1997, either.
Parkop said he couldn't recall when journalists had tried to report
the
Papuan story on the other side of the border without Indonesian
thought
police. He said: The media seems to have swallowed the political
line that
West Papua is part of Indonesia and whatever is happening there is
a matter
for Indonesia ... It seems that as far as the media is concerned,
West Papua
is A TABOO . It's a domestic affair similar to how we treat domestic
violence.
Cartoon: Sharpe's view of John Howard's closed door attitude to
West Papua -
it could easily apply to the PNG media attitude to Papua.
Posted by café pacific at
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2007/10/powes-parkop-slams-papua-
media-tabo
o.html> 4:22 PM
<http://www.blogger.com/email-
post.g?blogID=2145743014382006425&postID=28127
53010241352115>
<http://www.blogger.com/post-
edit.g?blogID=2145743014382006425&postID=281275
3010241352115>
Labels:
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/human%20rights> human
rights, <http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/indonesia>
indonesia,
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/melanesian%20solidarit
y>
melanesian solidarity,
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/papua%20new%20guinea>
papua
new guinea,
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/powes%20parkop>
powes parkop,
<http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/west%20papua>
west papua
---
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/20/2124037.htm?section=world
Aust surgeons 'delighted' by sight-restoring success
By Sophie Scott
Posted Thu Dec 20, 2007 12:48pm AEDT
* Map: Sydney 2000
Australian surgeons say they are glad their ground-breaking work has given
a tiny refugee from West
Papua the gift of sight.
The two-year-old has a rare genetic condition, where the skin grows over
the cornea, slowly causing
blindness.
Julian Inarkombu's journey from darkness into light was an epic - by
tractor, boat and plane from a
refugee camp in west Papua to Sydney Children's Hospital.
When he was found by Australian Doctors International, he had already lost
much of his vision.
But doctors at the Sydney Children's Hospital and the Sydney Eye Hospital
thought they could save his
sight, using a combination of surgical techniques never attempted before.
"It was such a challenge but it's had such a good outcome - we are
delighted with the outcome," eye
surgeon Gina Kourt said.
The surgeons grafted amniotic membrane onto his eye to recreate the lining
of the eye ball, then
constructed a new eye lid.
"We weren't expecting his vision to be improved as dramatically as it
has," Dr Kourt said.
"He had very limited vision and his vision by our formal testing has
doubled."
Julian's father says the toddler is now as much of a handful as any
two-year-old.
"I feel very proud of success of the Australian doctors, so much so that
my child can now see again,"
Stephen Inarkombu said.
Dr Jonny Taitz from the Sydney Children's Hospital said the team of
surgeons were glad to be part of
the procedure.
"To be able to give a child their sight is a gift you can't measure in
dollars and cents," he said.
The $10,000 trip to Australia was paid for by a benefactor who wants to
remain anonymous.
The family will return to West Papua in January.
---
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22950608-29277,00.html
World-first surgery saves boy's eyesight
December 19, 2007 08:37pm
Article from: AAP
A TWO-year-old West Papuan refugee has undergone world-first surgery to
correct a rare eye
abnormality and save his sight.
Julian Inarkombu had a rare congenital eye abnormality - cryptophtalmos -
in which eyelids fail to form
properly and skin fuses to the eyeball.
There are less than 100 reported cases of cryptophtalmos in the world and
without urgent treatment
doctors said it was only a matter of time before Julian was left
completely blind.
Julian could not close his eyes properly and his corneas were dry and
severely damaged, Sydney Eye
Hospital ophthalmologist and oculoplastic surgeon Gina Kourt said.
A conglomerate of doctors and Australian health facilities flew Julian to
Sydney from Papua New Guinea
where he underwent two operations, with the surgery combining two
techniques for the first time.
"He has a new functioning left eyelid that opens and closes and a normal
wet surface across his
rehabilitated cornea," Dr Kourt said.
"It has been a privilege to treat Julian. He has an extremely rare
condition and it is unlikely we will see
another case in our lifetimes."
---
http://kritikliberal.blogspot.com/2007/12/new-era-for-papua-border-market.html
New Era For Papua Border Market
Written by Abi , 10:31 AM on Friday, December 21, 2007
New Era For Papua Border Market Trade minister Mari E. Pangestu is putting
Rp 3 billion (US
$333,333) into developing the previously illegal Skouw market on the Papua
New Guinea-Indonesia
border. The money, which was received by Papua Governor Barbanabas Suebu,
was handed over
along with this year’s Rp 12.5 trillion central government budget for the
province.
The market is visited by around 200 people a day and numbers rise to more
than 500 on weekends, with
daily transactions recorded at around Rp 120 million. Most of the market’s
customers are Papua New
Guinea people who take advantage of the favorable exchange rate to buy
cheap Indonesian products.
“The Papua New Guinea customers usually buy food stuffs, electronic
appliances, apparel and farming
equipment as well as building materials,” said a trader, Nawir, a native
of Makassar who sells bags and
shoes.
He said the foreign customers found local products cheaper because one
kina was worth around Rp
2.900.
Nawir estimated his daily turnover at Rp 2.9 million, while another
trader, Nurjanah, said his was more
like Rp 3 million. The market, built in December 2004 on a non-hectare
plot of land, hosts around 125
traders mostly from cities in Java and Makassar. They rent spaces for
between Rp 500.000 and Rp 1
million a year from a local landowner.
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