Banti residents demand relocation

Timika - Residents of Banti Village, Tembagapura District in the Mimika regency, Papua are demanding the government to immediately relocate the Kimbeli Village. If this is not done they threaten to go to war again with the residents of the Kimbeli Village.

 This demand was delivered by the war chief of the Banti Village, Janes Narkime during a dialogue with the Regent of Mimika, Allo Rafra on Wednesday (11/7) afternoon. “This is our request. One week, can it be vacated or not? If this can not be done I will pick up my bow and arrow again. How many more lives would you like, five or ten,” asked Narkime which was supported by yells from 75 other residents present at the meeting.

 Narkime reminded that living conditions in the Kimbeli settlement is far from proper. “People are huddled up against the slopes of the mountain, above water channels, as if they are birds,” he illustrated.

 Rafra immediately responded that he was unable to fulfill this request. “I have seen the Deputy Governor and explained that the Banti and Kimbeli issue can not be settled just by the Mimika Regent. We have to have the regents from Puncak Jaya, Paniai and Jayawijaya present, too. If I am given just a week’s time, I too, as a human being have my limitations,” thus said Rafra.

 The Banti and Kimbeli villages are neighbors in the Waa valley. Both residents of these villages have been feuding since mid October last. The Banti village is an Amungme tribal village, the tribe that owns the ulayat rights of PT Freeport Indonesia’s mining territory; meanwhile the Kimbeli village is occupied by a number of ethnic Papuan tribes who have migrated from the Paniai, Puncak Jaya and Jayawijaya regencies because they are lured by the money they can get from panning for gold in PT Freeport Indonesia’s tailing, which on a daily basis may reach up to hundreds of grams of gold.