Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

People in Indonesian Papua area on PNG border yet to receive ministry aid

Posted at 01:45 on 06 August, 2007 UTC

People in Papua’s Kerrom District are yet to receive aid from Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information as part of the information dissemination programme in the border area.

The Jakarta Post reports that the district, which borders on Papua New Guinea, has yet to receive devices to receive radio and television programmes.

The ministry is running a programme in 2007 to provide each isolated and border area with a package including parabola antenna and a power generator.

A Catholic Priest John Ponga said local people were in bad need of such equipment to keep abreast of development progress in the country in the fields of agriculture, husbandry, plantation, health and education.

He feared that the devices had arrived in Papua but were handed over to persons who were not included in the programme.