Indonesian migrants into Papua is fuelling tension in Indonesia's
politically sensitive east, Papuan activists and researchers said on
Thursday.
Resource-rich but sparsely populated Papua, Indonesia's largest
province neighbouring Papua New Guinea, was given limited self-rule
under special autonomy laws after a heavy military presence failed to
crush a decades-old separatist movement.
A unit of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold runs the huge Grasberg mine
in Papua, providing jobs and attracting ancilliary businesses.
Thanks to the commodities boom and plans to invest in agriculture and
resources projects in Papua, a growing number of Indonesian migrants
-- mostly Muslims from wealthier islands such as Java or Sulawesi --
are moving to majority-Christian Papua, fuelling social tension, said
Frederika Korain from the Office of Justice and Peace, a rights group
linked to the Catholic Church.
"It's really a disaster. Around 1,000 to 5,000 migrants enter the
region every week. It is changing the demography in Papua," she said,
adding that a growing number of business-owners and political party
officials in Papua were migrants.
Victor Mambor, editor of Papuan newspaper Jubi, said hundreds of
ethnic Papuan languages could disappear because of the growing
influence of non-indigenous languages.
Brigham Golden, a Columbia university anthropologist specialising in
Papua, said some violence in the region that is often branded
separatist is, in fact, a cultural reaction to the growing political
and economic power of newcomers.
"This is the only place in Indonesia where every store is owned by a
non-local. Papuans just don't have capital," he said.
Teuku Faizasyah, spokesman for the foreign ministry, said he could not
confirm the migration figures quoted by the activists but said that
Indonesians were free to move wherever they like in the archipelago.
"Likewise, many Papuans move to other places. We don't employ any
state-sponsored migration policy," he said at a panel discussion
hosted by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
JAKARTA, Aug 12 (Reuters) -
(From Joyo, Reporting by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Nick Macfie)
(From Joyo, Reporting by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Nick Macfie)
https://theblacklist.net/
Replies