1) Most HIV patients in Papua co-infected with TB
2) MP3EI will push growth in eastern Indonesia: Minister
3) Protesters call on Freeport to leave Indonesia
4) PNG politician condemns NZ for ignoring ‘deadly conflict’ in Papua
5) PNG MP questions regional commitment to Papua region
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1) Most HIV patients in Papua co-infected with TB
The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Archipelago | Wed, April 24 2013, 3:11 PM
An official said Wednesday that around 60 percent of HIV-infected people in Papua are known to have also suffered from tuberculosis (TB) and that up to 40 percent of TB patients in the province are also HIV-positive.
Papua health agency head, Yosep Rinta, said in Jayapura that such a high number of HIV patients co-infected with TB was caused by a continuous decline of the strength of their immune system so that they were easily infected with the TB bacteria.
He said that many TB patients had never truly had a cure despite ongoing medical treatment and after a thorough examination, it was later found that they had contracted HIV.
Promiscuity or risky sexual behavior was the leading cause of high HIV prevalence in Papua. With a decline in the body’s immunity, they got TB infection easily, he went on.
“HIV patients can be co-infected with a wide vary of illnesses; yet, TB is the most common illness among HIV-positive people,” said Rinta as quoted by Antara news agency.
TB patients who are also HIV-positive will receive not only drugs commonly used to treat TB but also anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy to increase the strength of their immune system.
“HIV-infected patients must take the ARV drugs every day for the rest of their life,” said Rinta.
Unfortunately, only 2,091 out of 13,726 HIV-infected patients in Papua are taking the ARVs. (ebf)
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2) MP3EI will push growth in eastern Indonesia: Minister
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Business | Wed, April 24 2013, 2:52 PM
Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said that the accelerated realization of infrastructure development projects included in the Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development (MP3EI) could push economic growth in eastern parts of Indonesia.
“The Papua and Maluku corridors needs the biggest amount of investment; so, investment is being pushed to these areas,” the minister said, on Tuesday.
Hatta said commitments to invest more in areas outside Java and Sumatra could be seen from the government’s plans to expand and develop 20 new airports as well as extend incentives for private investors ready to develop eastern parts of Indonesia.
He said most of business players in real sector were currently being interested to only work on infrastructure projects in Java because both of their market and labor force were available in the area.
“It is our task to stop such things from happening. As much as we can, we will push them to invest outside Java,” Hatta said.
According to Hatta, development projects included in the MP3EI would strengthen connectivity, which in the longer term would play a vital role in transforming the Southeast Asia region into a production hub.
“We have to really push ahead in preparation for the ASEAN economic community in 2015. We have to be ready,” said Hatta.
Of a total 40 MP3EI infrastructure projects, 15 investment projects worth Rp 36.2 trillion (US$3.72 billion) are slated to begin groundbreaking in 2014 and the remaining projects, worth Rp 300.8 trillion, would begin by 2017. (ebf)
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3) Protesters call on Freeport to leave Indonesia
Aktual.co - April 22, 2013
Merusak Alam, Freeport Diminta Hengkang - Aktual.co. 22 Apr 2013 <http://m.aktual.co/energi/143329merusak-alam-indonesia-freeport-diminta-hengkang>
Vicky Anggriawan, Jakarta -- Scores of people from a number of difference social organisations that are part of National Papua Solidarity (Napas) held a protest action in front of the PT Freeport Indonesia central office in Jakarta.
"We demand that Freeport leave Indonesia because they have damaged Indonesia's environment", said Napas public relations officer Vivi Widyawati during the action in front of Wisma 86 in Jakarta on Monday April 22.
Widyawati said that PT Freeport is the biggest symbol of capital and has caused the greatest amount of environmental damage out of all the corporations in Indonesia. Freeport is also the most concrete form of corruption and cooptation of the government.
"The economic benefits for the Papuan community have not been as expected, on the contrary environmental [damage] has instead progressively worsened", she said.
The demonstrators also called on the government to apply a moratorium on mining licenses throughout Indonesia before there are any further designation of mining zones that involve Indonesian communities.
[Translated by James Balowski.]
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INDOLEFT News service
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New Zealand cannot call itself a Pacific nation and yet continue to ignore the Pacific’s deadliest conflict, a Papua New Guinean provincial governor says.
Oro province Governor Garry Juffa says there is a double standard between the extensive and sympathetic coverage of last week’s Boston bombings received in the New Zealand media, and the persistent media silence on casualties in West Papua.
“They can go and cry for three people that died in Boston, and say what a terrible tragedy it is, and in their own back door not look at the West Papua situation,” he told Pacific Scoop.................................................................
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5) PNG MP questions regional commitment to Papua region
Posted at 23:11 on 21 April, 2013 UTC
A Papua New Guinea MP Gary Juffa has questioned the commitment of regional countries to protecting human rights when ongoing abuses in Indonesia’s Papua region go largely ignored.
Speaking at the Pacific Parliamentarians Forum in Wellington, Mr Juffa said the media in Western countries, in particular, seems as selective as their parliamentarians on which issues they choose to be vocal about.
He says last week’s huge outpouring of grief and rolling media coverage over the bomb blasts at the Boston marathon, when three people died, is a case in point.
“But what about West Papua, where hundreds of people are being tortured, maimed, killed, every month. Right here in the Pacific, in our Pacific. What about that situation? How come there’s no attention to that? Where’s the media? Where are the governments? Where’s the United Nations?”
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