[Marinir] Indonesia Digest: No. 26.06 ; 31 -07- '06

[Yap Hong Gie]

INDONESIA DIGEST
Indonesia's complex Issues in a Nutshell
By: Ms. Wuryastuti Sunario
Published by: TBSC-Strategic Communication
No.: 26.06 - Dated: 31 July 2006
In this issue:

MAIN FEATURE:

VET TEAMS COMB COUNTRYSIDE TO STOP SPREAD OF BIRD FLU IN POULTRY

NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

1.      Tourism and Transportation:
Indonesia fights Sexual and Commercial Exploitation of Children
Pangandaran rebuilt as tsunami prepared Beach Resort

2.      Health, Culture and the Environment:
Telecommunications and Police Sirens strengthen Tsunami Warning System
South Java has been hit by 3 tsunamis in past 400 years

3.      The Economy, Trade and Industry:
Infrastructure Conference in November 2006
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MAIN FEATURE:

Editor's Note: Because of the importance of Bird Flu and its spread, at 
first I intended to write a synopsis of the three articles below. The first 
was published by the Jakarta Post, the second by the Associated Press and 
the third by Indonesia's Trade and Investment News issued by the 
Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs. However, on further thought, 
because of the complexity of the problems related to the spread of H5N1 
virus, it would serve Indonesia Digest readers better when all articles are 
copied in the Digest in their original format, with here and there 
paragraphs erased, to shorten the length of this article.


VET TEAMS COMB COUNTRYSIDE TO STOP SPREAD OF BIRD FLU IN POULTRY

Indonesia reached a grim milestone recently, recording its 43rd human death 
from bird flu, the highest fatality figure in the world. Health Minister 
Siti Fadilah Supari spoke with Jakarta Post's Tubagus Arie Rukmantara about 
the government's efforts to contain the H5N1 virus.
Question: Indonesia recently recorded its 43rd human death from bird flu, 
which is the highest number in the world. What does this number mean to you?
Answer: I have to explain this carefully. Yes, we are the highest in the 
world in terms of total number of bird flu human fatalities. But, if you 
view it from the perspective of population, it is because we have 220 
million people living across 17,000 islands. Meanwhile, Vietnam has only 
about 80 million people with fewer geographical barriers than us. The 
situation of the two countries is incomparable.
Nevertheless, we will not play it down. We are very concerned. Losing even 
one single life means a lot to us.

The real question is -- why have so many people here gotten infected? We 
have to understand that the spread of bird flu accelerates in dense 
populations, both human and poultry. The problem is, in Indonesia the 
highest density poultry populations are found in backyard farms. And in 
backyard farms, many people are unaware of the importance of sanitation for 
the birds' cages and their surroundings.

Many people just don't care about the importance of wearing gloves or 
personal protective equipment whenever they have contact with their birds, 
making them very much vulnerable to various health problems.


Q: The government has been campaigning against bird flu, so why are so many 
people still unaware of the threat posed by bird flu?

A: The fact is many regions are bird flu-free. That has made many people 
just ignore the problem. If you go to Tanah Karo, North Sumatra, most people 
think there is nothing to worry about with bird flu, although the region has 
recorded seven bird flu deaths from one family cluster, the largest cluster 
in the world. Nobody there is willing to undergo tests, they won't even let 
their chickens be tested. Fortunately, there have been no more outbreaks 
there.
The present situation is not favorable. There are no systematic programs to 
stamp out bird flu. Our vaccination and disinfectant spraying campaigns have 
not had a significant impact. Such a situation might tempt people to feel 
they don't have to worry about bird flu. So, it is obvious that we have to 
improve our public campaign against bird flu.


Q: How has the international community reacted to the situation here?

A: The world community has criticized us for failing to address the issue of 
infected poultry. They do not criticize how we treat human patients. They 
can't say we have failed to cure patients, because there's no cure 
available. They worry about how we deal with the problem of sick chickens. 
The international community wants us to introduce mass culling of fowls, 
which is simply not feasible. In Vietnam, for example, poultry culling 
succeeded in containing the spread of the virus. But the public there 
accepted the policy and participated in the program, although it was not 
clear whether the government would compensate the farmers for their losses.
In Thailand, the country has regularly culled sick birds, but the program is 
considered ineffective because the virus cannot be completely eliminated. 
And now, they are mobilizing thousands of students to conduct a bird flu 
campaign in villages.
The two countries have succeeded in implementing such strategies partly 
because of their geographical conditions and partly because of people's 
awareness of the problem.


Q: The WHO says that there has been limited human-to-human transmission of 
bird flu in Indonesia, but you consistently deny this. Why?

A: All the data and samples of cases occurring here are kept by us. We 
haven't shared them with other institutions because we are still conducting 
our research. After studying samples taken from 56 patients, including those 
from the Karo cluster, we believe there has been no mutation in the virus.
Those who say there have been human-to-human transmissions are 
epidemiologists, because when they see the virus infect a group of people 
they take that to mean transmission has occurred.
I myself still believe that the virus has not mutated, because all the 
samples show the virus comes from chickens, not from some other sources.


Q: What is your office doing to prevent more deaths?

A: Because the key is public awareness and prevention, we will work together 
with organizations such as Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, to increase 
people's awareness of sanitation and health matters. We will ask them to 
spray their backyards with disinfectant, have their chickens vaccinated and 
wash their hands frequently, which has proven to be the most efficient and 
effective way to stop the virus Indonesian vets, sleuth-like, comb the 
countryside for infected poultry


In a more positive note, Margie Mason reports for the Associated Press as 
follows:
Indonesia, the world's latest hot spot for bird flu, appears to be taking 
steps at last to beat back the spread of the disease in its poultry flocks.
In just six months, teams of veterinarians marching along dusty, twisting 
paths in the remote villages of this sprawling country have uncovered more 
flu outbreaks among birds than experts had even imagined.

"It's still just the tip of the iceberg," said Jeff Mariner, an animal 
health expert from Tufts University who has been working with the effort 
since it began in January. This new, but still limited, cooperation through 
a pilot project has somewhat heartened world health officials who have 
watched with dread as Indonesia's human bird flu cases quietly mounted while 
the government did little.
With 42 deaths since July 2005, Indonesia is now tied with Vietnam as the 
world's hardest-hit country in human avian flu deaths. However, Vietnam has 
had no bird flu deaths since last year.
Indonesia's new effort to gain control of the disease has dozens of 
veterinarians and other health workers doing detective work - going 
door-to-door to uncover hidden outbreaks in poultry flocks. They've found 
about 90 so far and look for key tip-offs.

When it comes to sleuthing out bird flu, (vets like) Aprianti, 27, and Dewi, 
31, have the skills of a Sherlock Holmes. They carry out five-minute tests 
on sick or dead birds. If the H5N1 virus is found, they notify a response 
team that helps with slaughtering and vaccinating.
Eventually, hundreds of similar detectives will form community-based 
surveillance and response teams. The project is a cooperative one between 
Indonesia's government and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

The task is mind-boggling in an archipelago that roughly stretches the width 
of the United States, with 220 million people and billions of backyard 
chickens. Health workers hope to reach a third of Indonesia's nearly 450 
districts by next spring.
Indonesia grabbed world attention in May when seven of eight infected 
members of a single family died. The World Health Organization concluded 
that limited human-to-human transmission was likely to blame, but the virus 
did not spread beyond the blood family members - the world's largest 
cluster.
Experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among 
people, potentially sparking a global pandemic. So far, at least 134 people 
have died worldwide since the disease began spreading in Asia in late 2003. 
(WHO officials later reconfirmed that despite the cluster, the H5N1) flu 
virus has not yet mutated to human-to-human infection - ed.)

Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds.
"We have to control it in animals because the transmission is not 
human-to-human," says Dr. Douglas Klaucke, of the U.S. Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, who recently met with Aprianti and Dewi's 
surveillance team. "The transmission is coming from the animals."
While Vietnam's mass poultry slaughter helped nip the threat there, 
circumstances are very different in Indonesia. While communist Vietnam has a 
strong centralized government, the power to fight bird flu in Indonesia lies 
largely at local levels. Jakarta's recommendations mean little unless 
community officials are on board.

The surveillance and response teams are a way to reach those leaders, by 
empowering local veterinarians to work directly with backyard farmers. "This 
is presently the best option because it can detect that our reporting is 
very weak," said Elly Sudiana, who oversees the program for the Ministry of 
Agriculture. "So, through this ... early detection can be improved and 
response can be improved."
So far, the program has received more than $8 million from international 
donors, but FAO has said it needs at least $50 million for a nationwide 
system.

"It's making a huge difference," said Lisa M. Kramer of the U.S. Agency for 
International Development. "It's a great way to get information out for 
prevention and a great way to understand how disease is moving through 
communities and a great way to control it and to contain it."
Government Culls Poultry in the Karo Highlands of North Sumatra
In the latest development, the Indonesia's Trade and Investment News 
published by the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs filed the 
following update in Indonesia's fight against Bird Flu, both in poultry as 
well as in humans:

Animal husbandry officials launched a raid on poultry infected with bird flu 
on Tuesday (25/7/06) in the Karo area of North Sumatra, killing hundreds of 
birds in an area where residents had earlier defied attempts to cull flocks.

By Wednesday afternoon, 1,890 birds had been culled by a task force backed 
by military and police. The carcasses were burned.

The raid occurred in the same area from which eight members of a single 
family were infected by the virus, with only one surviving. Another member 
of the family was buried before samples could be taken for testing.

Officials said three birds in the area tested positive for bird flu at 6 PM 
on Tuesday, with the raid to cull the birds beginning only three hours 
later.
(Sources:  the Jakarta Post,  Associated Press and Indonesia's Trade and 
Investment News))
--------------------------------------------------------------------

NEWS AND BACKGROUND:

1.      Tourism and Transportation:

Indonesia fights Sexual and Commercial Exploitation of Children in Tourism

TPI TV on 28 July evening showed an investigative report on the arrest of an 
alleged pedophile on the island of Lombok. The Australian national, whom 
Police reported was named "Don" had allegedly molested 5 boys. Besides 
writing for the Lombok Times, Don was also General Manager of a beach hotel 
on the island.

With the enactment of Law No. 23 of 2002 on the Crime of Sexual and 
Commercial Exploitation of Women and Children, Indonesian Police now have a 
strong legal basis to arrest predators. With this Law (Parliamentary Act), 
proven criminals are punishable with up to a 15-years jail term.  The 
District Court in Bali had already convicted a pedophile with 12 years in 
jail.

According to the story, Don had lured the boys into his hotel room with 
promises of,  - for the boys coming from poor parents, -  luxurious presents 
such as hand phones. Luring them to his room, Don abused them one by one. 
Don then told the boys to sneak into his room through the window to take the 
cell phones, - which they did.  But, on sneaking in, they were caught by the 
hotel's security and handed to the police for breaking in. But the boys had 
another story to tell the Police.

After thorough investigation, Police found evidence that Don had indeed 
abused the boys, which Don and his lawyer promptly denied. But Don was 
consequently arrested and is now awaiting trial.

Further, according to TPI, Australian Police were called in, who confirmed 
that Don was a convicted pedophile who had fled Australia after finishing 
his sentence.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg", said a spokesperson of the NGO 
Yayasan Tunas Alam. For, ever since Lombok grew as a tourist destination, 
more than 100 boys have been lured with promises. Seventeen foreign 
pedophiles have been identified by this NGO, with more than half being 
Australian nationals.

To fight sexual and commercial exploitation of Children in Tourism, the 
Department of Culture and Tourism, supported by the Australian government 
and ChildWise NGO of Australia, will activate the campaign against this 
crime within the purview of Tourism stakeholders, at a Business Breakfast on 
3 August at the Mercure Hotel at Jalan Hayam Wuruk in Jakarta.

Pangandaran to be rebuilt as tsunami-prepared Beach Resort

When President Yudhoyono met evacuees of the recent tsunami in Pangandaran, 
West Java, he promised that not only will the government restore West Java' 
s most popular beach resort to its former popularity, but the president was 
determined to build Pangandaran into a much better resort.

In a follow up action, Minister for Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik, 
explained how Pangandaran will be rebuilt as a tsunami prepared Beach 
Resort. First and foremost, buildings, hotels, restaurants and roads will be 
barred from being constructed on sites less than 100 meters from the 
shoreline at high tide. Secondly, an infrastructure of a tsunami warning 
system of sirens will be linked and packaged with an evacuation system, to 
allow evacuees to leave the area safely and instantly (better known as 
tsunami exit plan). Then on elevated ground, some half to one kilometer from 
the shoreline, evacuation areas will be constructed. These will built with 
concrete pillars, covering areas of 100m. by 100 m. and a ceiling height of 
4m. to 5 m. Similar tsunami exit systems will be installed at other popular 
beach resort that are likely to be hit by tsunamis, such as at Anyer, and 
Pelabuhan Ratu  (at Banten and West Java) and Nusa Dua , Kuta and Sanur in 
Bali, reported Kompas.

Meanwhile, Minister Jero Wacik promised that the government would assist 
Pangandaran hotel owners to obtain credit rescheduling, with priority 
provided to those with credit of at least Rp 5 billion.
While, in his report to the Minister, the Ciamis District Head, Engkon 
Komara explained that during the 17 July tsunami, at least 81 hotels and 
restaurants in Pangandaran were destroyed. Pangandaran has one 3-star rated 
hotel and the remainder are non-stars. Of these, 55 were heavily damaged and 
12 sustained minor damage.

2.  The Environment, Health and Culture:

Telecommunications and Police Sirens strengthen Tsunami Warning System

Responding to criticisms that the government had been slow in warning local 
inhabitants of the impending tsunami along the south coast of Java, Vice 
President Jusuf Kalla, Chairman of the National Coordinating Body for 
Natural Disasters, has called on related Ministers to urgently work towards 
the completion of the tsunami warning system to be accelerated to 2008 at 
the latest, and that threatened communities must receive adequate warning, 
no later than 20 minutes after the earthquake.

Meanwhile, awaiting installation of the system, Minister for Information and 
Communications, Sofjan Djalil, has called on all television and radio 
stations to be immediately linked into the warning system of BMG, Indonesia's 
Meteorology and Geophysics Board, reports Bisnis Indonesia.

Television and Radio stations are instructed to interrupt all broadcast 
should an announcement of an earthquake be made by BMG especially those that 
warn of a possible tsunami.
Therefore, for now, warnings to local expected stricken areas could be 
relayed through existing available systems, whose equipment will only need 
slight adjustments. These include BTS (Base Transmission Stations) towers 
constructed to relay cell phone signals, that are already installed in many 
parts of the islands by operators like Telkomsel and Indosat , as well as 
the radio and telecommunication network  used by Indonesia's national 
Police. Telkomsel is said to operate more than 6,000 mobile phone 
transmission towers throughout the country, and has targeted their expansion 
to all districts nationwide this year.

Sirens will now be attached to existing BTS towers that will be directly 
linked to the BMG system. A hotline will also be installed from BMG to the 
Jakarta Police Headquarters, who can immediately relay tsunami warnings to 
provincial, district, or even local police stations.
Meanwhile, Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman said Thursday 
that the government aimed to complete the construction of three seismic 
sensor devices in Sumatra, Java and Bali by the end of the year, reported 
the Jakarta Post.

"In line with the construction of the devices, the government also plans to 
install sirens on mobile phone transmission towers." The sirens would allow 
for the faster alert of local communities and for their evacuation to higher 
ground.
"Using the new devices, the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG), which 
will receive the warning of the disaster, will immediately relay the warning 
to the office of the communication and information minister," he said.
"The minister's office will in turn deliver the warning to all phone 
operators, including Telkomsel and Indosat, so that they can activate the 
sirens."
Minister Kusmayanto said the government has allocated funds amounting to Rp 
1.2 trillion (about US$127 million) from both state and regional budgets for 
the installation of the devices.
Meanwhile, responding to public criticism, on its part, in the past week, 
BMG has been  busy issuing information on a number of earthquakes in many 
parts of Indonesia, from Nias to Bali and Nusatenggara, citing those of 
above magnitude 4 on the Richter scale. However, thankfully, up to now, no 
tsunami has been triggered by these quakes.

Nonetheless, the warnings, which are now continuously broadcast through 
Television News Tickers have made Indonesians finally come to terms with the 
fact that the Indonesian archipelago is indeed earthquake-prone land. For, 
before the earthquake and the tsunami that struck Aceh in December 2004, 
Indonesians only knew of volcanic eruptions, which could at times cause 
earthquakes. But, as to tectonic earthquakes, these somehow would happen 
rarely on Java, - so we thought - and no one even remembers a devastating 
earthquake during his or her lifetime, let alone one that caused a tsunami. 
For, to the average Indonesian, until lately, tsunamis happened only in 
Japan or other countries, but never in Indonesia - or so we thought. Now we 
know better.

South Java had been hit by 3 devastating tsunamis in past 400 years

Indonesian Palaeo-tsunami scientists of LIPI (the Indonesian Institute of 
Science and Research), working together with their Japanese counterparts 
studying the tsunami-stricken area in south Java, discovered that in the 
past 400 years, Pangandaran and neighbouring south coast areas had been hit 
by 3 devastating tsunamis. They came to this conclusion after digging 
through layers of soil to a depth of more than 2 meters, reports the Kompas 
daily.

The tsunami prior to last 17 July's, occurred here in 1921, which was in 
fact described by Dutch geologist Mc. Cann, said LIPI Head of LIPI 
Geotechnology Department, Dr. Hery Haryono to Kompas daily.  Meanwhile, Dr. 
Eko Julianto, who had completed his studies at the Hokkaido University in 
Japan also discovered that an earlier tsunami that hit the area occurred 
even before 1600, prior to the arrival of the Dutch in Indonesia. Samples of 
this layer were sent to labs in the United States for carbon-dating.

While, another joint Indonesian-Japanese team that included the Indonesian 
Department of Marine Affairs and Fishery, working in cooperation with the 
Port and Airport Research Institute of Japan and the Japan Society of Civil 
Engineers, confirmed that, after studying 200 meter stricken coast line, the 
recent tsunami had hit the south coast at varying strengths and height, 
creating between high waves between 4.33 m. to highest of 7.75 m at some 
points. These waves were triggered by the earthquake measuring 7.7 RS 
magnitude that occurred on 17 July 2006 at 15.19 hrs. local time.

30 Orangutans to be returned to Central Kalimantan habitat

Thirty of the 53 Indonesian orangutans recently confiscated by the 
government of Thailand will soon be released in their new habitat in Central 
Kalimantan and Sumatra, to increase the present population of these 
primates, said Director General for Nature Conservation at the Department of 
Forestry, Arman Malolongan. In the past decade, Indonesia's orangutan 
population had decreased drastically, from 37,000 to a present 20,000 only.

The 30 orangutans to be returned to the wild have been examined and are 
healthy, while those still quarantined in Thailand still suffer from a 
number of diseases ranging from tuberculosis to hepatitis B, reports Bisnis 
Indonesia.


3.      The Economy, Trade and Industry:

Infrastructure Conference in November 2006

Indonesia is due to hold an infrastructure conference and exhibition in 
November in an effort to drum up private sector investment in 
infrastructure, reports Indonesia's Trade and Investment News published by 
the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy.

Titled "Indonesia Infrastructure 2006", the conference will be held on 
November 1-3, and will include a two-day forum and workshop on Indonesia's 
infrastructure needs in which senior decision-makers from the government, 
industry and international agencies will address a variety of strategic 
issues.  Participants from the technical, commercial, legal and financial 
sectors will attend the event.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono said in a statement 4 July, 
that the government would announce new investment rules and policies during 
the conference.  "At the conference, presentations will be made by officials 
from the relevant ministries on the projects on offer and the new rules," he 
was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

Suyono Dikun, the Coordinating Minister's Deputy for Infrastructure, said 
that it is expected that a number of new regulations and laws would be put 
in place before the conference.

The new rules would seek to improve legal standards, ease restrictive 
central and local government interference, and reduce the length of time 
required to set up a business to about 30 days compared to 150 days at 
present.

Dikun said that over the coming five years, Indonesia would need about Rp600 
trillion (about $63 billion) in new investment in the infrastructure sector. 
"We hope that between Rp120 trillion and Rp150 trillion of this will come 
from the private sector," he said.

For your comments and further inquiries, please e-mail to: 
tbsc-strategy at indo.net.id 


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