Jakarta (dap) - The death toll from a cholera outbreak in
Indonesia's easternmost province has risen to 172 Wednesday as
reports of violence against migrants accused of spreading the disease
are being reported, according to local church leaders.
Local church workers said that at least 172 residents from 19
villages in two different sub-districts on Papua's Kamuu valley have
died from severe diarrhoea and vomiting believed to be caused by
cholera since early April, the state-run Antara news agency reported.
Benny Giay of the Synod of Protestant Churches Denominations,
flanked by other local church leaders, expressed deep concern about
the tragedy and blamed local authorities of ignoring the issue and
not implementing prevention measures against the disease.
The long delay in government action provoked indigenous Papuans to
attack newcomers to the region last week as they believed the disease
had been intentionally spread by them to decimate the indigenous
population.
'Indigenous people vandalized houses belonging to the new migrants
based on the assumption the migrants were to blame for the outbreak,'
Antara quoted Giay as saying at a press conference on Wednesday.
He said local Papuans were suspicious the government was
deliberately neglecting the outbreak.
Brother Budi Hermawan of the Jayapura Archdiocese said earlier
that the churches have deployed medical teams to affected villages
but could not cover all of the large, remote area due to insufficient
personnel and drugs.
The source of the outbreak, which began in April, was still
unknown, but the disease appeared to be spreading via drinking water
from a river and products in markets in the highland region.
Local health authorities and the provincial government were
briefed on the crisis in May but failed to act, leading to a more
severe outbreak, Hermawan said.
'The residents' condition in the affected areas was very desperate
because there are still no efforts being made by local government
authorities,' Hermawan was quoted as saying.
Giay and Hermawan did not explain why both of them were just
disclosing the attacks days after the incident.
Papua province was incorporated into Indonesia in 1963 and Papuans
voted for Indonesian rule on the former Dutch colony on the western
half of New Guinea six years later in a UN plebiscite that was widely
seen as a sham.
Indonesia in 2003 granted Papuans special autonomy for the
province, but it remains the least developed in the country despite
being home to rich natural resources worth billions of dollars.
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