Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The special autonomy law has been in force for seven years in resource-rich Papua, but has made little difference to the socio-economic and political conditions of its indigenous people, a seminar concluded here Wednesday.

The forum cited the influx of migrants from outside the country's most eastern province as a factor which keeps the indigenous people marginalized.

Quoting a 2007 study by an Australian researcher, Lea Kanisia Mekiuw, of the Merauke Archbishop's Justice and Peace Secretariat, said the growth of the native Papuan population has fallen compared to that of the newcomers, sparking concerns that the indigenous people could lose their homeland to the latter.

The study, conducted by Sydney University's Center for Peace and Conflict studies research fellow Jim Elmslie, said that the annual growth rate of native Papuans is only 1.67 percent, much slower than that of the non-native Papuans, which is 10.5 percent.

In 1971, the indigenous Papuans constituted 96 percent of the province's total population of 923,000 people. But in 2005, the proportion changed significantly to 59 percent of 2.65 million people.

If the growth rates of the two groups continue at the same pace, Elmslie projected that in 2020, the ratio of native to non-native Papuans would stand at 30:70, and in 2030 the gap could be at 15:85.

Frederika Korain of Jayapura Bishopric's Justice and Peace Secretariat, speaking at the same event, said there was no official data on the proportion of native to non-native Papuans. This could be an attempt by the local and central governments to conceal the real conditions of the native Papuans, she added.

She said the special autonomy law, enacted in 2001, also had failed to improve the social and cultural lives of indigenous Papuans. Eighty percent of native Papuans are living below the poverty line, with most local jobs granted to migrants instead of the typically poorly educated indigenous people, Frederika said.

"Freeport (the US-based copper and gold mine company operating in Papua) has been the country's biggest taxpayer since 1967, but 80 percent of native Papuans still live in absolute poverty. Poverty pockets are evenly spread throughout almost all Papua regencies," she said at the seminar, which was titled, Building a National Support Constituency for the Fulfillment of Papuan Women's Rights, and organized by the National Commission on Violence Against Women.

Lea warned that millions of hectares of forests have been and more would soon be destroyed due to the operations of large mining, forestry and plantation firms.

She also said that the 2007 split of the region into Papua and West Papua provinces had brought more negative impacts than benefits to the native Papuans, with many locals being forced to compete with one another to find food to eat instead of sharing an area.

Other speakers in the seminar, all who came from Papua, also spoke of the poor education and health services in the province, as well as the conditions of the local women. Many cases of physical and sexual abuses were reported against native Papuan women, they added.

They urged both the central and local governments to be serious in implementing the 2001 special autonomy law on Papua, including giving the indigenous people the right to earn a better living.