The Australian Financial Review reports that major relief efforts in Papua New Guinea by the government with Australian help has limited the death toll to "hundreds" while across the border in Irian Jaya, the Indonesian government's refusal to declare a state of emergency and to admit international aid has apparently led to deaths, "estimated to be in the thousands", from disease and starvation.

Another report reads: "It is the worst drought within living memory. Malnutrition and malaria have taken on devastating proportions, especially in the areas affected by the conflict. Famine has reached the final stages in some of the villages in the highlands, with children and the elderly the main victims." In an initial report sent to Geneva, a team of ICRC and Indonesian Red Cross experts, who have been conducting a survey in Irian Jaya since 19 November, gave an alarming account of the situation there, especially in the Mimika district and the Jayawijaya mountains.

According to the report, crops in the central highlands have been destroyed by the six-month drought. Food reserves, 80% of which consisted of yams, have now been exhausted and the next harvest is not expected until June or July. Those hardest hit by malnutrition and malaria are the people who fled the conflict areas last year for the lower-lying forests and valleys. In two of the villages visited, 20% of the population has died since October. In others, 55 % of all infants are suffering from severe malnutrition and 95% of the villagers have malaria. According to the team, "the fate of thousands of people will be decided in the next two months". The survey is to continue in the Baliem valley, where, according to Indonesian sources, more than 250,000 people are at risk. To alleviate the crisis, the ICRC plans to provide the affected population with emergency food rations over the next six months. So far, it has only been able to distribute some rice and a few medicines to about 2,500 people >in the nine villages already visited. A consignment of tonnes of >high-protein biscuits donated by the Norwegian government arrived at the >beginning of the week and two helicopters (one light and one heavy) are >now available for use. Logistical problems and fund-raising are major concerns for the organizers of this operation: a light helicopter costs 25,000 US dollars per month to run, and few governments have so far agreed to help finance humanitarian work in Irian Jaya. Meanwhile, meteorologists have predicted that El Nino will continue to wreak havoc in the region until mid-1998."--Further information: Sri R. Wahyu Endah, ICRC Djakarta, tel.: ++6221 720 7252 and Joerg Stoeklin, ICRC Geneva, tel.: ++4122 730 2906.