Villagers still cross PNG/Indo border despite abuses

Transcript

A representative from a Papua New Guinea village close to the border with Indonesia says traditional border crossing rights still have a place despite some abuses of the system.

Traditional Border Crossers have officially recognised rights to travel back and forth between PNG and Indonesia's Papua region for cultural reasons.

Jame Nunakru is a ward representative in Lido village in PNG's West Sepik province.

He spoke to Johnny Blades about life near the border.

JAME NUNAKRU: Those people who are living close to the PNG border, we have relatives who are living on the other side of the border - we sort of have common, traditional ties. That is why even though West Papua is ruled by Indonesia we still have those traditional ties and we still travel across for customary purposes and things like that, not using passports but using traditional TBC cards - a traditional border card. This is the card I talk about and this is issued to the five villages along the west coast and we use this to travel across the border.

JOHNNY BLADES: So all of the villagers have them?

JN: That's right, yes.

JB: Do you have to prove that you were born here or anything like that?

JN: Yes, we have to. The council will endorse any application form of any community member to satisfy that they are a citizen of that village. Even then they take it to, I think, foreign affairs who will process a card for him or her.

JB: And does the system work quite well? Does it work alright?

JN: It used to be, but there's a lot of abuse now because the card has been issued to those people who are not entitled to it, that's why there is some abuse. We have relatives who live on the other side, when they come I don't see any problems there. They live with our people for quite a while and then they return.

JB: Do you get many OPM [West Papuan independence rebels] people coming over?

JN: I cannot give you any exact figure but we have elements living on our side of the border and we have PNG sympathisers who accept them when they come into our territory.

JB: Are they coming because they are also related to people here or because they're fleeing?

JN: Sometimes they are in search of medicine, maybe food supplies, and others they just cross over to escape from Indonesian authorities.  

JB: What are the biggest changes to your way of life here?

JN: There is not much development taking place along the border compared to the Indonesian side, where there is tremendous development taking place. On our side of the broder the government is not concentrating and, as such, we have not seen much improvement in terms of development.

JB: Is that contrast over there, is that pulling people over? People who want better services or anything like that.

JN: I think yes. It's not happening very much along the coast but there's a lot of people migrating to the Indonesian side in search of, you know,  better life.

JB: Things like...

JN: Education, health, you know the general standard of living. They are not getting much attention or much help they tend to move across in search of a better life.