APSN Banner

Home Indonesia Aceh West Papua East Timor

Commission rejects Papuan AIDS microchip bylaw

Jakarta Post - November 26, 2008

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua AIDS Commission (KPA) on Tuesday submitted a letter rejecting a controversial draft bylaw that would require people living with HIV/AIDS to be implanted with a microchip.

The letter, sent to the governor, stated the proposal was against the nature of HIV/AIDS prevention and human rights.

"The draft bylaw has not yet been deliberated with the health office, the KPA, religious institutions or other levels of society, such as non-governmental organizations," Papua KPA head Constan Karma said.

"The Provider Initiated Concealing and Testing method totally contradicts what has been stated in Article 15 of the bylaw, which requires that all people be tested," Karma said, adding that he also opposed the establishment of the AIDS Inquiry Agency, citing that funding the agency would be burdened on the province.

Head of the Communications Forum for Indonesian Veterans' Children, Yan Ayomi – also chairman of Papua legislature's Commission C – said the legislature fully supported the proposal.

"I am in favor of the bylaw to protect the basic rights of native Papuans, whose numbers are very small. Of the 4,114 HIV/AIDS cases in Papua, 60 percent involve native Papuans, so the tackling of the issue must also be harsh," Ayomi said.

He said the alarming rate of HIV/AIDS cases was threatening the population of Papua, which he said was growing at a slow rate, and that an effective bylaw was needed to resolve the issue. "HIV/AIDS has been present in Papua for the last 16 years. We no longer need a grand design but a specific design," he said.

Head of the Fajar Timur theological academy in Jayapura, Neles Tebay, said he opposed the passage of the bill. "The use of microchips violates human dignity. If it's passed, we will submit our rejection because the bylaw has not gone through an open and public debate," he said.

The bylaw on HIV/AIDS prevention has entered deliberation and is set to be passed at the end of next week. NGOs and a number of other rights groups have voiced their opposition to the bill.