An Australian woman convicted of using marijuana was sentenced
to six months jail by an Indonesian court, but should be free
within weeks. Barbara Kathleen Higgs has been held in custody
on the island of Lombok since February 19. Court officials
said her sentence had been backdated and she would be due
for release next month in time for her 44th birthday. She
was found guilty of using the drug, but was acquitted of more
serious possession and trafficking charges. Higgs, originally
from Pinjarra, Western Australia, was not in the Lombok court.
She has been treated in an army hospital for much of this
month suffering typhoid, kidney problems and a skin condition
- contracted her lawyers said in prison where water quality
is poor. Higgs was arrested after police, acting on a tipoff,
searched the Bulan Baru (New Moon) hotel she owns with her
New Zealand husband at the beach resort of Senggigi. They
allegedly found 48 grams of marijuana. Police said Higgs had
admitted buying the drugs from a local dealer two days before
the raid. (July 27th 2006, AEST)
Volcano on Indonesian Island Spews Lava
A volcano on an eastern Indonesian island started spewing
lava and hot clouds, forcing the evacuation of thousands of
villagers, officials said Friday (28/7). Lava and hot ash
rumbled 750 yards down Mount Karangetang’s slopes Thursday
(27/7), its second eruption since July 17, said Saut Simatupang,
chief researcher at the government’s volcanology agency.
Mount Karangetang, one of the country’s most active
mountains, has been rumbling for weeks. Six villagers were
killed when Karangetang erupted in 1992.The 5,850-foot Karangetang
is on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain, which has not
been affected by a recent string of natural disasters. (July
27th 2006, AP)
An explosion at an oil refinery in Java early today injured
nearly 150 people and caused about 7,000 residents to flee
their homes, police said. The explosion took place at a joint
Pertamina-Petrochina oil refinery in eastern Java province
as workers tried to contain a gas leak by setting it on fire,
said local police chief Rumhadi. There were no deaths
reported, but nearly 150 people were hospitalized suffering
from respiratory problems after inhaling gas. Police are still
investigating the cause of the accident. (July 27th 2006,
AP)
Indonesia Burns 100 Tonnes of Donated Medicines
About 100 tonnes of out-of-date medicines donated by foreigners
after a major earthquake last year have been incinerated this
week, an official said. “One hundred tonnes have already
been burned, beginning from Tuesday” (25/7), Vincent
Aloysius from the cement plant where the drug disposal is
taking place in Bogor, south of Jakarta, told AFP. He said
a further 100 tonnes were set to be burned from Saturday at
the plant’s incinerator. The medicines were sent to
Indonesia in the wake of an 8.7-magnitude quake that struck
off the Coast of Nias Island in March 2005, killing more than
850 and injuring 6,000. The destruction was organised by the
World Health Organisation and the United Nations Development
Programme, which is funding the incineration. Indonesia has
struggled to deal with hundreds of tonnes of unwanted medicines
being donated in the wake of a slew of disasters in recent
years. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami which killed 168,000
people in Aceh province, some 600 tonnes of expired,
damaged or inappropriate medicine were donated. A further
50 tonnes of such drugs are also set to be destroyed following
the May 27 Jogjakarta earthquake, which killed some 5,800
people. (July 28th 2006, AFP)
Earthquake Rocks Bali
An earthquake that shook Bali, on Wednesday evening (2/8)
was felt in areas of Denpasar and Tabanan. Many people ran
out of buildings and homes when the quake struck at just after
11pm in the evening. An official from the department of meteorology
and geophysics (BMG) in Denpasar said that the earthquake
lasted approximately three minutes. The earthquakes epicentre
was around the southern area of Praya, central Lombok regency.
(August 4th 2006, Bali Post)
Garuda Pilot Dies of Heart Attack
The pilot of a plane carrying up to 300 passengers from Bali
to Adelaide died during take-off, it has been revealed. Garuda
Indonesia Flight 722 last Tuesday (25/7) was delayed for almost
an hour after it returned to Denpasar Airport following the
death. Adelaide Airport sources yesterday told The Advertiser
the co-pilot had to abort the take-off procedure when the
chief pilot suffered a heart attack and died at the controls.
A spokesman for Garuda, the official airline of Indonesia,
yesterday confirmed the pilot’s death. It was yesterday
unclear if the plane was airborne at the time. The Airbus
A330-300 aircraft was preparing to return hundreds of Australian
holidaymakers from Bali to Adelaide, via Melbourne. Passengers
waiting at Adelaide Airport to fly to Bali that day were delayed
by three hours because of the death of the pilot in Denpasar.
(July 31st 2006, The Advertiser)
Three Australian Tourists, Two local Fishermen Drown
Australian tourist Mr. Jeffrey Joseph Rigby (48) drowned off
Seminyak beach while surfing on Friday (28/7).
Lifeguards rescued the man, and he was then rushed to the
Bali International Medical Centre (BIMC), but attempts to
revive him failed. An 84-year-old Australian woman drowned
on Tuesday (1/8) while snorkelling a few metres off shore
in shallow waters off Lipah beach in the district of Karangasem
on the island’s east coast. Iona Margaret Thompson of
Adelaide had been swimming with her husband Dennis, 85. The
cause of death had not been established. Bali police have
identified the body of Chin Tenh Fung, a 30-year-old sales
manager from Melbourne, who went missing surfing in rough
conditions off Bingin Beach near the renowned Uluwatu surf
break on Saturday (29/7). The mans body was washed up on Perancak
beach, Negara in the islands North, on Sunday; a full seven
days after the man went missing. Mr.Chin had been on holiday
in Bali with a friend, Ben Davey. Both were dumped by a massive
wave, but only Mr. Davey managed to make it back to shore
where he reported Mr. Chin’s disappearance, police said.
Two Balinese men were also washed out to sea by big waves
while rock fishing in the same area on Bali’s south
coast on Saturday (29/7). It’s feared the men have drowned,
however their bodies have not yet been recovered. (August
7th 2006, Bali Post)
Annual Haze from Indonesia to Last a Decade
The annual haze originating from land-clearing fires in
Indonesia is likely to blanket South-East Asia for the next
decade, officials said in a published report Monday (31/7).
Responsibility for the problem originates not just with
subsistence farmers scrambling to clear land but also syndicates
and plantation owners, it said. “The use of fire is
something that has been practised for many generations,”
The Straits Times quoted Herman Prayitno, a sub-director at
Indonesia’s ministry of forestry, as saying. “People
cannot expect the practice to disappear overnight.”
The thousands of fires set in the provinces of Riau and West
Kalimantan are the source of the smoky haze carried by winds
to Indonesia’s South-East Asian neighbours including
Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. Visibility is drastically
diminished and health problems arise, particularly for asthma
sufferers. The haze during some years has kept tourists away.
Indonesia has enacted laws to prohibit firms and large-scale
farmers from open burning, but the government admits that
it cannot stamp out the fires. “It is undoubtedly the
cheapest method for subsistence farmers, who have to clear
land to plant food,” said Brad Sanders, a fire and safety
manager with a fibre plantation. The fire bulletin issued
by the World Wide Fund for Nature said that satellite readings
for last month showed that Riau had as many as 1,419 hot spots
and West Kalimantan had 1,544. (August 3rd 2006, Kerala News)
Authorities Warn of Possible Terrorist Attacks for August
- October
The Republic of Indonesia’s State Police Headquarters
has warned that the coming months of August through
to October could be a high risk period for terrorist activity.
According to a police spokesman, terrorist attacks have typically
occurred between the months of August-October. Examples of
this are the first Bali Bombing that happened in October 2002,
the case of the bomb explosion in the JW Marriott Hotel, Jakarta
(in August 2003), the bomb explosion in front of the Australian
Embassy in Jakarta (in September 2004) and finally the second
Bali Bombing that happened in October last year. Chief Police
General Sutanto said that he sincerely hoped that we would
have no incidents this year; however the police force was
prepared to act should any events occur. Sutanto also hoped
that as a result the capture or even killing of several key
members of terrorist groups that the risk of strikes would
be reduced this year. (August 5th 2006, Bali Post)
High Seas Warning for Bali and NTT
The Department of Meteorology has issued a warning for Bali
and surrounding waters, saying that we will experience very
high tides, strong currents and a large swell during the coming
weeks. According to Sutrisno, a spokesman for the department,
this phenomenon has been caused by strong winds offshore which
could reach up to 40 km per hour.Several tourists have already
drowned in waters of the South and South East of the Island.
(August 6th 2006, Radar Bali)
Australian Arrested in Jakarta for Alleged Child Sex Offences
Police in Jakarta say they have arrested an Australian man
for allegedly committing paedophile crimes with more than
50 children. The 48-year-old Australian, named by police only
as Peter, was arrested in his rented house in Jakarta on Saturday
(5/8) after police received reports from two children who
fled his house, police spokesman I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana says.
He says the Jakarta-based English teacher had allegedly molested
more than 50 Indonesian street children since moving to the
country in 2000. “We believe that he has also molested
children in Vietnam and Cambodia,” he told AFP.
He says the Jakarta Centre for Street Children had also filed
a complaint over the Australian’s alleged abuse. Andri
Cahyadi, a worker with the centre, says Peter allegedly sold
movies depicting masturbating teenagers on the Internet, the
Detikcom online news reported. (August 7th 2006, AFP)
Militants Elude Indonesian Police Hunt
One of Asia’s most wanted militants may have eluded
anti-terror teams despite a large manhunt in East Java province,
Indonesian police said on Thursday (3/8). About 120 anti-terror
police and troops combed villages in Mojokerto district on
Tuesday and Wednesday after residents complained of suspected
activity by several men in the hills. Villagers who travelled
to the mountain had told police they often encountered several
men asking for food. One looked like Malaysian-born fugitive
terror suspect Noordin Top and spoke in a Malay accent. Top
is believed to be one of the masterminds of some of the deadliest
militant attacks in Indonesia in recent years, including last
year’s Bali bombings that killed 20 people. Analysts
say Top was a key leader of the al Qaeda-linkedJemaah Islamiah
militant Islamic network, but may have split to form a more
radical group. (August 3rd 2006, Reuters)
