Human Rights News
KPK urged to address corruption cases in Papua
By ANTARA News 07/09/08 00:52
Jul 16, 2008, 13:52

Jayapura (ANTARA News) - A local religious leader said the Corruption
Eradication Commission (KPK) has so far not paid any attention to or touched
suspected corruption cases involving serving and former office-holders in
Papua`s executive and legislative branches at provincial and district or
municipal levels, creating the impression the KPK was "discriminative" in
carrying out its mission.

Rev Socratez Sofyan Yoman, chairman of the Papua Baptist Churches
Association, said corruption was being committed at all government
administrative levels without anything being done to fight it, causing
people to lose confidence in the government.

"People want the executive and legislative branches of government to remain
clean but in reality enormous sums of money meant to improve the community`s
welfare have been embezzled or misappropriated by executive or legislative
officials. The KPK seems still unwilling to come to Papua to solve this
complex problem," he said.

Socratez predicted, if the KPK failed to take up and solve suspected
corruption cases in Papua, the people in Indonesia`s most-eastern province
would sooner or later lose their belief in a legitimate, clean and
corruption-, collusion- and nepotism-free government , followed by
discontentment about the government and finally the outbreak of vertical and
horizontal conflicts.

There were many suspected big-time corruption cases in Papua but none of
them had so far been investigated seriously , much less settled in court.
All reported cases ended up being shelved by police, public prosecutors or
judges under all sorts of pretexts such as "lack of evidence` or the
conclusion that the cases merely involved "administrative errors." he said.

Among the suspected corruption cases that had so far remained untouched by
the KPK were one involving tens of billions of rupiah in the Waropen
district administration, one in the Mimika district administration when it
was led by former district chief Klemen Tinal , another one in Timika
district affecting a state-owned building.

Anther big case happened in Puncak Jaya district, namely in relation with
the Mulia Hydropower Plant project costing Rp11,275,465,000 and managed by
Papua province`s energy and mineral resources office in cooperation with PT
Bumi Cipta Alam Selaras.

"If the KPK does not come to Puncak Jaya, Mimika and Waropen and other
districts soon to handle the corruption cases, the local people`s discontent
and loss of confidence could turn into nationally disintegrative attitudes
and actions," Socratez warned.

Papuan people knew the central government had allocated trillions of rupiah
in funds to develop their region, especially for the benefit of the
province`s indigenous people. Yet there were no signs of improvement in the
people`s health care, family nutrition, education, infrastructure facilities
and economic welfare in general, the clergyman said.(*)



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