GOVT TAKES SPEEDY ACTIONS OVER STARVING ISOLATED TRIBE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, March 12 (Antara) - The death of 11 isolated forest tribesmen due to starvation has prompted the government to take speedy actions to safeguard 3,850 forest people living in Bukit Duabelas National Park in Jambi Province, Sumatra.          "The government will act fast and gather data needed for providing solutions to the problem being faced by  the isolated tribal community in Jambi," Hartono Laras, the director general of the Social Empowerment and Poverty Handling Affairs of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said in Jakarta on Wednesday.          It was reported earlier that thousands of forest people living in Bukit Duabelas National Park of Sarolangun-Batanghari District, Jambi Province, have been starving due to lack of food.          Manager of the People's Empowering Program of the Indonesian Conservation Community (KKI Warsi) Robert Aritonang remarked that forest people, also locally known 'Kubu'or 'Suku Anak Dalam' (SDA) or 'Orang Rimba,' were facing food shortage after some companies have cleared land in their forests to plant oil palms.            Continuous forest destruction due to illegal logging or oil palm plantation expansion has marginalized the Kubu tribe. Illegal logging had depleted natural resources in the forests, including animals and plants that used to be a food source for tribe members.          Aritonang said that besides illegal logging, the Kubu tribesmen also suffered from food crisis because the forest which served as source of their food had been cleared to make way for palm oil and rubber plantations that had been licensed by the government.          "There are now about 3,850 Kubu tribe members living in Bukit Duabelas National Park. The acreage of forests from where they earn a living has been decreasing. Many forest areas in the region have been transformed into plantations or become part of trans-high ways," said Aritonang.          Their nomadic tradition is still unchanged, moving from one place to another and sometimes return again to the first place for months later.      "Sometimes they move seven times before they come back to the first place. It is during the shifting time that they often have no food supplies as forest where they earn foods from hunting deer, boars and other animals have declined. They could no longer grow tuberous plants," he said.          This condition has posed difficulties to them. They run short of food. When they move their physical condition become weak and starve to death.          "There have been deaths taking place consecutively among the Kubu or Anak Dalam isolated tribe. From January to February, 11 have  starved to death," Aritonang said.          The Ministry of Social Affairs confirmed that the death of the 11 Kubu tribe people was due to starvation. Laude Taufik, the head of institutional evaluation and report unit of the Ministry of Social Affairs said in Jambi on Friday that he had learned and known the incident after visiting  the Kubu people there.          "The ministry of social affairs has observed directly to check the media. We aim to verify and clarify the real condition. We also have dialogues with members of the isolated Kubu tribe people. We confirm that they did experience food crisis," Taufik told a press conference at the KKI Warsi office last Friday (March 6).          He said that the Kubu tribe people did not have food supplies when they moved from one place to another. They repeatedly change places. As they had no food supplies they suffered from weak physical conditions.          Therefore, the ministry of social affairs promised to take actions soon to overcome the food crisis being faced by the isolated Kubu tribesmen. The ministry will also hand over assistance to the families of the 11 people who have died.          "The government will earmark a special budget to overcome the food crisis," remarked Taufik.          He said that his side had set allocation of funds to be provided as a token of sympathy and condolences for the families of the dead.  "But this allocation should be provided in the form of basic necessities because if it is provided in the form of a cash they might use it to buy cigarettes," said Taufik.          In the long run, the ministry of social affairs will build permanent resettlement for them but this need a long process because they have nomadic tradition that has to be chanced.          "One of the Social Affairs Ministry's concrete programs is carrying out an empowerment model through permanent residential settlement," Hartono Laras, the director general of the Social Empowerment and Poverty Handling Affairs of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said on Wednesday.          The empowerment program constituted a long-term scheme worked out for isolated tribal communities. Of course there are also short-term program to immediately help them.          Emergency steps include consultation and medical treatment for ailing forest people ('Orang Rimba') who are suffering from starvation that has so far claimed 11 lives.          Hartono pointed out that the government will act fast and gather data needed for developing their residential settlements.          "We have to handle this and considered solutions carefully because they have their own traditions. Their surrounding nature has already changed," Hartono noted.          Steps such as approaches, advocacy, social studies and mapping out are needed before moving them to a new permanent residence, he remarked.          "They are generally willing to be shifted to a settlement, this we know from counseling," asserted Hartono.***4*** (T.A014/b003/B003) (T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 12-03-2015 23:11: