Indonesia has so many islands it has not been able to count
them all and is having a hard time finding names for them.
From coral-fringed atolls to jungle-clad volcanoes thrusting
up from the ocean, its chains of islands sprinkled along the
equator make up the world’s biggest archipelago. Officially
there are about 17,000 islands, but that number may drop as
one minister fears hundreds of islands might vanish because
of rising sea levels from global warming. So, before it’s
too late, the country aims to complete its first detailed
survey this year, spurred on by worries ranging from sovereignty
disputes to climate change. Even near the capital, there is
confusion over the numbers. “How can you manage the
islands if you don’t know the identity of the islands?”
questioned Alex Retraubun, a government official in charge
of small islands and leader of the survey. World sea levels
are likely to rise by up to 59 cms (23.2 inches) by 2100 and
bigger gains cannot be ruled out if ice in Greenland and Antarctica
thaws, the U.N. climate panel said in February. Retraubun
said that with the majority of small islands in the country
only 1 meter above sea level, there was little Indonesia could
do if sea levels rose dramatically.(May 17th 2007, Antara
News)
Indonesian Fishermen Net Rare Coelacanth Fish
Fishermen have caught a rare coelacanth fish in waters off
Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, a report said Sunday 20
/5).The fish, about one-meter (three-feet) long, was caught
in nets off the North Sulawesi capital of Manado on Saturday
and died a few hours later. Coelacanths are among the world’s
oldest fish species. Their fossil records date back more than
360 million years and suggest the animal has changed little
in that time. They reached peak abundance about 240 million
years ago, but were thought to have died out around the time
that dinosaurs became extinct - until a coelacanth was caught
off the Commoro islands in South Africa in 1938. A few have
since been caught in waters along the eastern African coastline
and several north of Manado. Coelacanths, closely related
to lungfishes, usually live at depths of between 200 and 1,000
meters. They can grow up to two meters in length and weigh
as much as 91kg (200 pounds). But the fish, sometimes referred
to as a “living fossil,” otherwise remains an
enigma for scientists, and it is not known why Saturday’s
find was caught in nets so close to the surface. (May 21st
2007, Antara News)
Orangutan Population on Brink of Extinction
The Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus) population in the
Betung Kerihun National Park (TNBK) is on the brink of extinction
due to poaching and illegal logging activities. Species Officer
of the WWF-Indonesia`s Putussibau office Albertus Tjiu said
that illegal logging activities had pushed orangutan further
into the jungle. “The latest issue threatening the orangutan
habitat in Kapuas Hulu district is the planned opening of
oil palm plantations. Investors are eyeing forest areas along
the 805-km long river in the border area,” Albertus
Tjiu said Wednesday (23/5). According to the 2004 data based
on the Orangutan Population and Habitat Viability Assessment,
the population of Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus was 7,936, (14,10
percent of the total population of orangutan species), Pongo
pygmaeus morio 15,406 (27,40 percent), and Pongo pygmaeus
wurmbii 32,906 (58,50 percent), he said. A research expedition
in the Kerihun Betung National Park, Sibau and Embaloh, showed
that most of the orangutans lived outside the national park,
namely in the protected forests and industrial forests. (May
23rd 2007, Antara News)
Tsunami Warning Lifted After Strong Quake-Indonesia
A strong undersea earthquake on Thursday (24/5) off central
Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara Island chain sparked panic
and prompted a brief tsunami warning, but there were no reports
of casualties or major damage. The quake struck near Sumbawa
Island at a depth of 19km (11 miles), Fauzi, head of seismology
at Indonesia’s meteorological and geophysics agency,
told Reuters. “We have cancelled the warning. The quake
had no tsunami potential,” the head of the agency said.
Residents in Raba town on Sumbawa Island said the quake sparked
panic but no damage was reported. The United States Geological
Survey said the quake was of magnitude 5.5 and at a depth
of 50.4 km (31 miles) and was 1,380 km (860 miles) east-southeast
of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Thailand’s Disaster
Warning Center said the quake measured 5.6 there and no tsunami
warning had been issued, while Malaysia’s seismology
agency reported much the same. (May 24th 2007, The Peninsula)
Horta Sworn in East Timor President
Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor’s
newly elected president, took the oath of office at a simple
ceremony in Dili yesterday, as fresh violence claimed one
person in the troubled country. Horta, who spent years abroad
as a spokesman for East Timor’s struggle for independence
from Indonesian occupation, succeeds Xanana Gusmao after winning
nearly 70 per cent of the votes in a May 9 election run-off.
His victory has raised hopes of greater stability in a nation
still struggling to heal divisions five years after it won
independence from Indonesia. Horta, 57, vowed to guarantee
East Timor’s stability at the swearing-in, held at the
heavily guarded national parliament building. The two-hour
ceremony was attended by parliament members, diplomats and
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. “I will
... obey the constitution to guarantee national unity and
the stability of the nation,” said Horta, dressed in
a formal jacket. “As a new president I will follow the
steps of outgoing president Xanana Gusmao to realise peoples’
dreams. I will find a way to end the crisis in the country.”
In a speech delivered in four languages - East Timor’s
national language Tetum, Portuguese, English and Indonesian
- Horta urged street gangs to end all violence “because
it just destroys the nation”. (May 21st 2007, Reuters)
Three Indonesians Sentenced to Death for Drug Smuggling
Three Indonesians have been sentenced to death for trying
to smuggle thousands of ecstasy tablets into the country,
a sentencing judge said Thursday (24/5). The three were sentenced
Wednesday (23/5) after being convicted of attempting to traffic
almost 25,500 tablets from Malaysia to Indonesia’s nearby
Batam Island, judge Haruno Patriadi said. Agus Hadi, 44, and
Pujo Lestari, 30, were expected to appeal their sentences
while the third man, Suryanto, 33, told the Batam district
court that he accepted the verdict. Suryanto had asked sailors
Hadi and Lestari to smuggle the pills on a boat from Malaysia
to Batam where he would meet them, the judge said. The boat
was stopped by a patrol in November last year and the pills
found stashed in the captain’s cabin, said Patriadi,
one of three sentencing judges. Indonesia is increasingly
becoming a market for drugs rather than a transit point for
shipments destined for countries such as Australia, officials
say. Courts are consequently handing down stiffer sentences,
including the death penalty, to both locals and foreigners
charged with trafficking, they say. (May 24th 2007, Antara
News)
Indonesia Confirms 77th Bird Flu Death
A five-year-old Indonesian girl has died from bird flu, taking
the country’s death toll from the virus to 77, a health
ministry official said Wednesday. The girl died last Thursday
at a hospital in Solo city on the main island of Java, said
the official from the ministry’s bird flu information
centre. She had come in contact with at least 20 dead chickens
around her home and in her neighborhood in Wonogiri town in
Central Java, the official said. It was unclear if members
of her family or neighbors had also come into contact with
sick and dying poultry, the most common form of human infection.
“The results of tests showed that she was positively
infected with the bird flu virus,” said the official,
identified as Ningrum. Ningrum said the latest death took
the toll from the virus to 77 in Indonesia, the country worst
hit by the virus. Another 20 people had been confirmed as
infected around the country and were being treated, the official
said. The government had hoped to eradicate bird flu deaths
in 2007, but instead 20 people have now perished this year
after contracting the virus. The World Health Organization
says the H5N1 strain of the virus has infected at least 282
people and killed around 170 of them, mostly in Southeast
Asia, since the end of 2003. The latest death comes after
Indonesia earlier this month resumed sending virus samples
to a WHO laboratory in Tokyo, ending a five-month freeze.
(May 23rd 2007, AAP)
Bali’s Boy with Magic Fingers Plans Europe Tour
One of Bali’s premier musicians, Balawan, is planning
to tour Europe visiting Germany, Holland and Belgium.
Deep Scars from Jogja Quake Remain a Year On
A year after a powerful earthquake devastated an area around
Indonesia’s ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, thousands
of homes have been rebuilt but deep physical and mental scars
remain for many survivors. The quake that struck around dawn
killed more than 5,700 people and left tens of thousands homeless
- in a matter of seconds reducing homes to piles of wood,
masonry and dust in a heavily populated area in the heart
of Java Island. Unlike some other disasters, most survivors
have remained near their destroyed homes, with communities
and households given cash to rebuild, with strings attached
to try and prevent misuse. “People can match the size
of the houses with their land. They can choose their own design
for their houses.” The official said, however, that
in the Klaten area more than 40 percent of households were
waiting for a second batch of cash. Pete Manfield, a U.N.
recovery coordinator for the area, said that lessons had been
learned from previous disasters. “I think what this
has proved is that communities are the best people to make
decisions about their needs.” Gendut Sunarto, a government
official in Bantul, said the recovery was also a tribute to
the local people. “I believe it is in the nature of
the Javanese people. We are very good at picking ourselves
up from the ruins and our communal bonds make us help each
other in rebuilding our lives.” (May 2007, Reuters)
