Health Minister Nafsiah Mboy said on Thursday that she would send a medical team to Samenage in Helenga district, Yahukimo Regency, Papua, to check reported multiple fatalities in the remote hamlet.
Previously,
61 villagers in Samenage had reportedly died between January and March
this year due to a variety of illnesses, some of which are related to
malnutrition.
According
to human rights activist and Catholic priest John Jonga of the Hepuba
parish, the data was gathered by a pastoral team that paid a visit to
the area during the recent Easter celebrations.
“We
have to check the report and will send a team there to confirm the
information,” said Nafsiah after attending a meeting with Papua Governor
Lukas Enembe and regents and mayors across Papua province in Sentani,
Jayapura.
She
cast doubt on the reliability of the data since there had been no
report of epidemics or force majeure in the area over the last two
months.
“There
are times when people exaggerate things. There were no such multiple
fatalities. It could only happen if there were a tribal war or certain
epidemic. There is no epidemic reported either,” said Nafsiah.
Earlier
this month, an NGO also reported that as many as 95 people in three
villages in Tambrauw, West Papua, died of illnesses possibly due to
malnutrition between November 2012 and March 2013.
Nafsiah
also denied the report. “There was no such thing. We have dispatched
teams to the area and there were only four fatalities recorded from
October 2012 to March 2013,” she went on.
She, however, admitted that the remote location had hindered the government’s efforts to provide health services.
Yahukimo,
which has a population of more than 164,000, is located some 800
kilometers from Jayapura, the Papuan capital. The hamlet can only be
reached by light aircraft.
John
Jonga previously reported that people of Samenage suffered from
diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, guinea worm disease and respiratory
problems as well as malnutrition.
The
hamlet only has an auxiliary health center with one medical worker,
known as mantri. The mantri, however, has apparently been absent for two
months due to illness.
“If
a villager gets very sick and his or her family has enough money, the
patient will be taken to [nearby town] Wamena. But many are left to die
[since they cannot afford to pay for the costly transportation],” said
Jonga.