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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration plans to establish a local development authority in Papua to coordinate development and accelerate efforts to resolve serious human rights abuse cases that have occurred in Indonesia’s easternmost region.

The authority, to comprise seven customary-based units in West Papua and Papua, will be responsible for planning and executing several development plans in the region.

 Yoedhi Swastono, the deputy for domestic political coordination at the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister, said Wednesday the plans were expected to be finished within this year.

“The plan to establish the seven units is based on the fact that the region is divided into seven customary areas,” Yoedhi told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a discussion regarding development in Papua sponsored by the Indonesian Science Institute (LIPI), the Press Council and the Papua Peace Network (JDP).

The central government has long turned a blind eye to the fact that, according to Yoedhi, “customs hold an important role in the life of every Papuan”.

 According to data made available to the Post, the seven planned units will be at Domberay, with Sorong, Raja Ampat and Manokwari as its major cities; Bomberay, which consists of three regencies, including Fakfak; Mee Pago, which consists of six regencies, including Mimika; Saereri, which includes Biak Islands; Mamta, with Papua’s capital Jayapura; La Pago, which covers an area of ten regencies, including Jayawijaya; and Anim Ha, the easternmost area that centers around Merauke.

 “Those areas have different characteristics and different kinds of potential,” Yoedhi said, adding that the authority, which is expected to be established before July, would undertake several tasks, including economic empowerment and the expansion of education and healthcare services.

 Meanwhile, the effort to resolve human rights abuse cases in Papua has been ongoing, Yoedhi said. A government-established team, chaired by former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) acting deputy chairman Indriyanto Seno Adji, has been working to map out the root causes of several rights abuse cases, he added.

“The team will partner with the National Commission on Human Rights and several rights activists and to focus on resolving cases from 1996 to 2014,” Yoedhi said.

 Those cases include the 2001 Wasior riot, the 2013 Wamena riot and the 2014 Paniai massacre.

 Jokowi has tried to build trust with Papua, which is blessed with abundant natural resources but whose native inhabitants have not enjoyed any trickle-down prosperity and who have lived in grinding poverty for decades because of neglect from the government. The poverty and repression has given rise to a plethora of separatist conflicts in the region.

Since his rise to power, Jokowi has regularly visited Papua, keeping his word to be directly involved in efforts to raise the dignity and well-being of Papuans.

 However, Marthen Goo, a Papua activist who asked the Post to conceal his organization’s name, criticized the government’s moves, calling them “irrelevant”. (mos)