Jayapura, Jubi – The Pegunungan Bintang (Pegubin) Administration is preparing to send hundreds of displaced people of Kiwirok District, who fled after the attack on the Kiwirok’s health center on Sept. 18, 2021, back to their villages.
More than 300 Kiwirok residents currently take shelter at 17 points in Oksibil City, the capital of Pegunungan Bintang.
Pegunungan Bintang regent Spey Yan Bidana, deputy regent Piter Kalakmabi, and secretary of the Governor’s Office Aloysius Giyai on Tuesday, Oct. 26, visited the evacuation posts to take people’s aspirations regarding the plan to send them home.
Deputy regent Kalakmabi said that his party would send residents back to Kiwirok before December 2021.
“We have spoken with the Kiwirok residents and delivered logistics. We will discuss with all stakeholders to make sure these people can go back to their hometown in Kiwirok before December,” he said in a written statement obtained by Jubi on Tuesday.
According to Kalamakbi, the displaced people really wanted to go home. “They want to go home as soon as possible. They say it doesn’t matter even if they live in a tent, so long as they are in their hometown. Therefore, the administration will facilitate them. The situation [in Bintang Mountains] is generally more conducive now,” he said.
Meanwhile, the administration will use the 2022 regional budget to recover a number of public facilities and government assets that were damaged and burned in the attack last month, such as the community health center, the Papua Bank Office, the Kiwirok District Office, as well as some schools.
“We will also rebuild public housing. We will ask for assistance from the Papua Provincial Government, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing. With a limited budget, we at Pegubin cannot build it ourselves,” Kalakmabi said.
Kalakmabi also asked the health workers who had previously left Kiwirok and several other districts to return to their normal duties in the future. “For Kiwirok, we are aware that they need time to recover from their psychological trauma. But for those outsides of Kiwirok, we asked them to return to their places of duty. We guarantee that Pegubin is a safe area,” he said.
Regent Bidana asked the people not to spread hoaxes about Pegunungan Bintang being an unsafe area. Pegunungan Bintang, Bidana said, had always been known as a safe and comfortable area for anyone who comes to serve the community.
“I ask the village heads, district heads, church leaders, and traditional leaders to make sure the public get the right information instead of fearmongering hoaxes,” said Bidana. (*)
Reporter: Abeth You
Editor: Kristianto Galuwo
