P

apua Governor Lukas Enembe has pledged to embrace Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatists, expressing his will to build a bridge between the group and the government by involving them in the
provincial development.

Enembe said that he would continue to hold discussions with OPM members to find out their demands.

'€œI have yet to meet them in person, but I keep in contact with the group. They are our brothers,'€ Enembe said, adding that they wanted to be listened to and understood.

'€œIf some of the members want to go to school, we will send them to school. If they want to run a business, we can provide training and loans so they can start their business,'€ he continued.

Enembe said that the Papua Liberation Army Front (TPN)/OPM leader Goliat Tabuni had given him a call and asked him to develop Tabuni'€™s village.

Good communication between the parties, Enembe said, would build mutual understanding and therefore it would be easier for the separatists to accept the government'€™s development programs.

Enembe called on all regents in the province to take a peaceful approach by holding dialogue with the separatists. He also urged the central government to disburse more funds for the province'€™s development since Papua could not rely only on the provincial budget.

Civil and separatist conflicts, combined with intense corruption and extreme isolation, have severely retarded development in Papua despite the province'€™s rich natural resources of gold, copper, coal and timber.

Papua was ranked the nation'€™s poorest province by the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), with 32 percent of its residents considered '€œpoor'€, far above the national poverty rate of 12.5 percent.

Despite an annual budget of more than Rp 40 trillion (US$4.16 billion), the seventh-largest budget in the country, Papua'€™s development indicators remain stubbornly at the bottom of the list. Papuans have repeatedly urged the government to sit down for dialogue to propose solutions.

The Jaringan Damai Papua (Papua Peace Network), led by Catholic priest Neles Tebay who won the 2013 Tji Haksoon Justice and Peace award, is currently struggling to make such Jakarta-Papua dialogue happen. The globally-recognized Papua Peace Network has organized several rounds of negotiations between the separatists and the government.

'€œThe Papua Peace Network has submitted a draft scheme of the dialogue. It is now up to Jakarta to synchronize the concept,'€ said Papua lawmaker Ruben Magai on Tuesday.

'€œPapuans are hoping for dialogue. The government might not care for this, but we will keep on asking them about it,'€ he added.