RI Population to Reach 250 Million by 2015
The population of Indonesia will reach 250 million by 2015 from currently around 200 million. “Within less than six years, Indonesia`s population is strongly believed to reach that figure (2015), or about 330 million by 2050,” Sugiri Syarief, head of the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), said here on Wednesday. The huge population would later burden national development, he said. Therefore, he urged the public to participate in the national family planning program. (October 7th 2009, Antara News)
Suspect Arrested in Japanese Tourist Murder /
Rape Case
Indonesian police confirmed Monday that a 33-year-old Japanese tourist who was found dead last week on Bali had been raped by her attacker while she lay dying. I Gede Alit Widana, chief of the Denpasar Police Headquarters in the Bali provincial capital, made the announcement after receiving the autopsy results from the Sanglah General Hospital. Rika Sano was found dead Sept. 28 in the Kuta resort area after having been reported missing from her hotel three days earlier. Her suspected killer, David Goltar Wicaksono, 26, was arrested Friday (2/10) in Malang, East Java Province. “When she was fighting him, the suspect took a log and struck her. When she was dying, the suspect raped her,” Widana said. “The suspect possibly suffers from sexual deviation, so we will send him to a psychiatrist.” Widana said Wicaksono is suspected of robbing six women in Kuta in the past six months. “The suspect was charged with two articles of the Criminal Code, on kidnapping and on murder. He faces five years in jail for each charge,” Widana said. Wicaksono, who has no prior arrests, is still in police custody and being questioned further. The police earlier said Sano checked into the Prani Hotel in Kuta with her friend, Mayumi Someya, 30, on the night of Sept. 24. At around 2:30 a.m. the following morning, Wicaksono, claiming to be a police officer, led her away from the hotel. The suspect showed police identification and a badge to the hotel’s security officer and claimed Sano was a drug trafficker. Earlier, he had led Someya away from the hotel and robbed her, but she managed to escape an attempted rape. But when Someya returned to the hotel, she was unable to find Sano. (October 6th 2009, The Japan Times)
Indonesia’s Police Demolish on-line Child
Pornography Syndicate
Indonesian police’s cyber crime unit, in coordination with the U.S. Immigration, the Customs Enforcement Unit of Singapore, and Australian Federal Police, cracked an on-line child pornography syndicate, the Kompas.com online news reported on Wednesday (7/10). “We have been investigating the case thoroughly for three months and managed to arrest three suspects,” said the police’s head of public information division Sen. Comm. Untung Yoga at the police’s headquarters. Untung said that the suspects in East Jakarta were selling, buying and exhibiting video compact discs (VCDs) and digital compact disks (DVDs) online through websites and e-mail. Police seized several computer units, a laptop, VCDs and DVDs, copying tools, video equipment, blank CDs, 16 hard disks, 11 cell phones, 5 ATM cards and other evidence. (October 10th 2009, Xinhua)
Strategic Airlines Wants Ozjet Rights to
Operate Bali Services
After acquiring Ozjet’s operations in late June, Strategic Airlines now wants all of the former carrier’s air rights to Bali transferred into its name and has last week applied for government approval. Strategic Airlines has indicated to Australian aviation officials that it wants to start operating services to Bali, Indonesia from Brisbane as soon as the 6th of December this year with a once weekly service. A second weekly Brisbane - Denpasar service would be introduced from the 30th of June, 2010, Strategic says. “Strategic Aviation Group Pty Ltd recently acquired OzJet Airlines Pty Ltd (“Ozjetl/) from the Administrator,” says Strategic in its submission. “Strategic intends to operate the air service between Brisbane and Denpasar and is seeking the transfer of capacity of 408 seats.” “Strategic plans to operate an Airbus 330 aircraft between Brisbane and Denpasar twice weekly. This aircraft has a capacity of 229 seats and if operated twice weekly, represents 458 seats per week. Therefore we are seeking an additional 50 seats per week,” it adds. Strategic Airlines was awarded its Australian Air Operator’s Certificate on the 19th of September 2009. (October 7th 2009, E-Travelblackboard)
Obama’s Planned Indonesia Visit Postponed
to Next Year
U.S. President Barack Obama’s planned visit to Indonesia this year has been delayed to sometime next year, but the delay has nothing to do with security concerns, Indonesia’s presidential spokesman said Wednesday. Dino Patti Djalal told a press conference that Obama and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono discussed the planned visit when they met Sept. 25 in Pittsburg on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 major and emerging economies. “After reviewing several options, they agreed that the best time for such a visit would be next year, at a time agreed to by both sides,” he said. The spokesman said the delay has nothing to do with security concerns. Rather, he said, “We need a right time because this visit has to be special and productive, considering President Obama has spent part of his childhood here.” Obama was earlier tipped to visit Indonesia in November when he visits Southeast Asia to attend a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore. (October 7th 2009, AP)
Crackdown on Illegal Bali Hotels and Clubs Begins
Community enforcement officers have finally begun to take decisive action against Badung regency accommodation and night entertainment venues who have failed to secure required licenses and permits in support of their operations. On Monday, September 29, 2009, authorities formally sealed and closed the 11 unit Sari Residence on Jalan Nakula in Legian, refusing to accept the owner’s excuse that the property was operating for almost an entire year on a training basis pending issuance of the needed operating licenses. The closure of the hotel, the first in a series of a number of similar shutdowns to come, was ordered by Badung’s Regent A.A. Gde Agung who had reportedly wearied of numerous news reports depicting his administration as incapable of administering local zoning laws. According to NusaBali, a number of local businesses were summoned to meetings with Badung officials and reminded that leniency was at an end and businesses without permits would be closed. The Head of the enforcement division (Satpol PP Badung), Adi Arnawa, told the press: “Not only the Sara Residence, but we have also called on the VI Ai Pi, Lanai Restaurant, Best Western Sapta Petala Hotel and Dee Jay Café.” Arnawa explained further: “The government is often forced into a corner. When, in fact, the business owners build first, operate and only then begin to organize permits. The result is that many buildings do not conform to the principle permits. This is a situation which must be addressed.” (October 5th 2009, http://www.balidiscovery.com.)
Dewa Batuan to Hold Painting Exhibition in Spain
Dewa Nyoman Batuan (63), a well known artist born in Pengosekan, Ubud, Gianyar regency, Bali, will hold an international painting exhibition in Spain. “A total of 15 paintings themed `Mandala`(shrine) had been sent to Spain,” said Dewa Nyoman Batuan in Ubud Sunday (4/10). He said that the exhibition is scheduled in mid-October or early in November 2009. Dewa Nyoman Batuan had learnt from his grandfather, who had learnt from Rudof Bonnet, a well known Dutch artist who had also lived in Ubud for quite a long time. Bonnet and the late Tjokorda Gde Agung Sukawati, born in Ubud in 1910 along with a local artist, the late I Gusti Nyoman Lempad established the “Pita Maha” in 1936 which had inspired the art of painting and Balinese culture globally. The main purpose of the “Pita Maha” organization was to save and preserve works of art by gathering dance and painting artists. (October 4th 2009, Antara News)
Inadequate Engineering Claims Thousands of
Lives in Indonesia
Miyamoto International, leaders in earthquake and structural engineering have said that the tragedy that occurred in September (30/9) in Padang, Indonesia, did not have to happen. The consultants from Miyamoto said that many of the Indonesian schools, hospitals, commercial and industrial buildings, and houses are constructed with un-reinforced masonry and non-ductile, brittle concrete. These building types have been proven to be unstable and dangerous. Similar construction killed more than 90,000 people in China during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake and caused more than US $140 billion in property damage. Last week, the fragility of similar brittle building types claimed thousands of lives and interrupted many more thousands of lives in Padang. These dangerous buildings are not exclusive to Padang and China: the fact is they exist throughout the world, including in many U.S. cities. (October 8th 2009, Marketwire)
Indonesia Police say Sulawesi “Blast” not Bomb
Indonesian police were investigating loud blasts heard on Thursday (8/10) in South Sulawesi Island, but initial checks could not confirm the cause and there was speculation the sound could have been a jet’s sonic boom or a natural phenomenon. There were no reports of an earthquake or air accidents in the area where police said the blasts were heard up to 17 km (11 miles) from an area near the district capital of Bone. “We cannot predict yet what caused it. It is clear that it was not a bomb explosion. We are guessing maybe it was a natural phenomenon,” said Abunawas, the head of the police information centre in Bone. There was also speculation that the blast could have come from the sonic boom of a jet fighter, but an air force official said this was unlikely. Hasanuddin, air force commander in the South Sulawesi capital, told Elshinta radio that training of Russian-made Sukhoi fighters did not usually take place in this area and radar had not detected anything. (October 8th 2009, Reuters)
KLM to Resume Flights to Bali
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will recommence service between Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport, effective December 6, 2009. KLM ceased flying to Bali on October 15, 1997, representing a service gap of more than 11 years to the popular holiday island. The new KLM service connecting Amsterdam and Denpasar will fly three times each week. Flight KL835 will depart Amsterdam at 21:00 on Sunday arriving in Bali the following day at 20:10. The return flight, KL836, will depart from Denpasar at 21:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, arriving at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at 08:00. Flights in both direction will have an intermediate stop in Singapore and be operated with Boeing 777-300 aircraft configured to carry 390 Economy and 35 Business Class passengers. (October 5th 2009, http://www.balidiscovery.com.)
Indonesia Mulls Declaring Villages Mass Graves
Villages buried in landslides triggered by last week’s earthquake may be declared mass graves, Indonesian authorities said Wednesday ((7/10) as relief agencies battled to reach remote areas. Up to 400 people are believed to have been buried alive when hillsides collapsed in the 7.6-magnitude quake and obliterated four adjacent villages in Padang Pariaman District of Sumatra Island. West Sumatra Governor Gamawan Fauzi said most of the dead would probably never be found or would be in such a state of decay that it would be better to leave them where they were. The official death toll from last Wednesday’s quake stands at 704 but the Red Cross believes the final number will be more than 3,000, with hundreds of bodies still interred in the debris. (October 7th 2009, AFP)
