BP builds 125 houses for evicted Papuans

MANOKWARI, Irian Jaya: British Petroleum (BP) has pledged to build 125 homes for Papuans in Tanah Merah Village, Manokwari Regency, who are evicted from its gas mining area this year.

Erwin Maryoto, a spokesman for BP, said that the houses would be constructed after the government approved an environmental impact analysis (Amdal) proposed for the Tangguh liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

He added that the company, in cooperation with Papua University in Manokwari, has completed a feasibility study in which local villagers said that they were ready to move elsewhere.

"Of utmost importance is that the people can live humanely, and are ready to develop harmonious relationships with the company," he said here on Wednesday.

Maryoto also said that the company would undertake a social development program to help improve local people's social welfare. --Antara

Program to fight illiteracy in West Lombok

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: Officials in West Lombok, responding to the illiteracy among 160,000 of the area's 700,000 residents, will carry out a special education program, a local administrator said.

Lalu Fadlullah, a spokesman for the local West Lombok administration, said that programs would be held in the evenings so as not to affect people's daily business.

He said that the illiterate were mostly made up of school-age children, and some parents.

"The educational programs are being offered to help make the nine-year education program already in existence even more successful," he said. --Antara

Cirata dam contaminated

CIANJUR, West Java: Indonesian Green Foundation Chairman Cevy T. Mulyana said on Wednesday that the pollution on the Cirata dam near the city has reached alarming levels, threatening untold thousands of fish farmed in the dam.

"The waste water's chemical contents harm the fish in the dam," he said, adding that the pollution was caused by fish feed residue in the dam.

He said that the dam would not be a feasible place for fish farming in the next 20 years, if the pollution was not handled properly.

Cecep, a fish farmer, said that untold thousands of fish, which were ready to be harvested, have died for unclear reasons over the last three months, and that no farmers could identify a cause.

"Dead fish, which were not generally abandoned in the dam's waters, also contributed to the pollution," he said. --Antara

Prosecutor seeks seven years for rapist

JAMBI: Two government prosecutors, Baza Talaumbanua and Bambang, have sought a seven-year jail sentence for 60-year-old Selamat bin Karta, who was found guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl identified as SZ.

"The defendant was found guilty of raping an under-age girl, a crime violating Article 287 of the Criminal Code. Therefore, we appeal to the justice to hand down a seven-year jail sentence on him," Talaumbanua said in a court session presided over by Barita Hutabarat in the city on Tuesday.

The prosecutor said the defendant raped the victim, a daughter of the defendant's neighbor, in his house in Jeluntung subdistrict in May, 2001

The girl is six months pregnant.

The trial was adjourned until next week to hear the defendant's legal defense. --Antara

Govt to demolish refugee camps

ATAMBUA, East Nusa Tenggara: The Belu regency administration is still making preparations to demolish by force hundreds of camps housing more than 100,000 East Timorese refugees in the regency between April and May, says a local official.

Belu Deputy Regent Bria Yohannes said here on Tuesday that the local administration had cooperated closely with the local police and military to seek an effective way of evicting the refugees from their camps.

"In principle, we are ready to implement the government's policy to evict the refugees from the camps in the coming months," he said here on Tuesday.

The government has given refugees the choice of returning to East Timor or remaining in Indonesia and joining the resettlement program. So far, none of the refugees have made their decision, for reasons which remain unclear.

The refugees are part of a group of 295,000 who took refuge in the province following the Sept. 1999 violence in East Timor. Some of them have gone back to East Timor while others have joined the resettlement program.

The government has stopped humanitarian assistance to the refugees in the hope it will encourage them to make a decision about the future. --Antara

57 escape police detention

SERANG, Banten: A total of 57 women and men, who were netted in a drug operation, escaped Cilegon Police detention on Sunday before they were due to be interrogated.

However, the local police interrogated 89 others; three of them were found in possession of banned drugs while 59 others did not have identity cards.

Betti Indiani, 31, Anani Syarif, 31, and Djoko, 39, were detained for further investigation when the police confiscated a number of inex pills from them.

They were taken to the police detention center after being picked up at Bojong Village, close to Anyer tourist resort, which has become well-known for its drug parties at weekends.

The 59 who did not have identity cards were fined Rp 10,000 each.

Deputy chief of Cilegon Police Precinct Sr. Comr. Syamsuddin said the operation had been carried out after the police had received many tip-offs and complaints from local people about frequent weekend drug parties at the coastal resort.

In addition, the police also confiscated 14 cars and 21 motorcycles, which were suspected to have been used to conceal the drugs. --Antara