WASIOR REFUGEES STILL FLOWING TO NEIGHBORING TOWNS

 

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Oct 14 (ANTARA) - Thousands of  refugees from the flash flood-affected area in Teluk Wondama district, West Papua, have left  or are still leaving for neighboring villages, districts or provinces after the natural disaster paralysed their town last week.          Some are still leaving for other provinces such as Southeast Sulawesi,  South Sulawesi or Maluku provinces. On Thursday. for example, a second batch of refugees totalling 183 persons arrived in Baubau, Southeast Sulawesi. The arrival of the second phase increased  the number of Wasior refugees in  Baubau to 667 people.          It was reported that the National  Disaster Mitigation Agency  (BNPB) had accommodated at least 4,771 flood refugees in Manokwari, capital of West Papua while 2,554 others took their own shelters or returned to their families.          According to BNPB,  2,652 other refugees had also been accommodated  at six refugee sites in Wasior and   355 others in neighboring Nabire. For those who wanted to evacuate to other provinces there were at least four airlines --apart from ships provided by state-owned shipping firm PT Pelni-- which are ready to serve them free of charge.          The ministry of transportation announced on Wednesday three national airlines had offered their services for refugees who wanted to leave Wasior after the area was hit by a flash flood claiming the lives of 145 people and causing 103 others to go missing last week.          "The four airlines are Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Batavia Air, Lion Air dan Airfast," Director General for Air Transportation Herry Bakti S. Gumay said. The four airline companies are ready to fly them to their respective destinations during the emergency response period in the coming several days.          "Batavia Air, for example is ready to fly refugees from Manokwari to Makassar, South Sulawesi. It is free of charge," the director general said. Airfast is preparing a BAE aircraft to carry out evacuation activities from Manokwari to its neighbouring towns.           Merpati readies one Twin Otter aircraft and one jet airplane. Lion Air in the meantime also has provided one aircraft.           The airlines made the commitment to fly refugees in line with the appeal by Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi to national airline firm to help Wasior natural disaster victims.           State-owned shipping line PT Pelni also operates its fleet to help refugees. It deployed "KM Ngapulu" ship to transport refugees to Baubau. On Thursday, it had more than 400 refugees to disembark in Baubau.          The arrival of the refugees was welcomed by Baubau Mayor MZ Amirul Tamim.  "We are mobilising different parties which consisted of personnel from the military and police forces, health services and transportation office to handle the refugees," the mayor said.          He said that his side has prepared a refugees command post and places to accommodate them. "We have also prepared logistics needs which are being handled by Baubau's Social Affairs Service," Amirul Tamim said.           Head of Southeast Sulawesi's Social Manpower and Transmigration Service, Amiruddin said that the number of Wasior refugees arriving in the second batch was higher than that in the first batch. "In the first phase, there were 183 Wasior refugees. In the second one this time, their number reaches 484 persons," he said.          He said that the arrival of the second batch had been prepared by Baubau's local government in coordination with relevant agencies. "We pick them at the pier when they arrived. When they disembarked we directly took them to the location of refugee camps. Of course with a tight escort by security officers," he said.          He said that the 484 refugees in the second phase consisted of 52 children and 10 infants. "Among the 484 refugees, there are 10 injured victims and they have been rushed to the hospital to receive medical treatment," he added.          He said that the social service officials took their data as soon as they arrived in the location of the refugee accommodation facilities.  "This is done to know the whole number of refugees because their number may just be bigger than the one issued by Pelni," he added.          In the meantime, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed a two-week extension of the Wasior flash flood emergency response.  "Extend the emergency response by two weeks from the original schedule," President Yudhoyono said when inspecting the flood-hit area at Wasior on Thursday.          The emergency response was originally scheduled for only ten days from October 8-18, 2010 but based on the president's instruction, it will be extended until the end of this month. The emergency response would be prioritized to the injured and sick survivors.          Yudhoyono said the government would provide temporary housing for victims of the recent flash flood. "Better accommodations will be provided for them while reconstruction efforts in Wasior are being made," he said in a dialogue with evacuees at a local military field.          He said it was indeed not appropriate for people to stay in an evacuation center for a prolonged period and therefore the government would build temporary houses that meet minimum standards for them. Meanwhile, he hoped the  evacuees would exercise  patience.          President Yudhoyono on the occasion also reaffirmed the government's commitment to rebuild Wasior after it was  destroyed in  the disaster.          He had earlier on Wednesday said in a dialog with the flood-affected refugees at Manokwari Military District Command Headquarters,  that the government was committed to reconstructing the flood-devastated Wasior area.***3*** (T.A014/A/HAJM/21:13/H-YH)14-10-2010 21:13: