'Islands for monkeys, not storing oil'

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

The Bogor Institute of Agriculture has objected to government plans to lease two islands to foreign countries to store their oil products.

Institute spokesman Agus Lelana said Wednesday that the islands were sanctuaries for monkeys used in AIDS disease experiments on the island since 1986.

AIDS research continues on the island.

On Monday, the Committee for the Efficient and Optimal Use of Small Islands announced that it had offered Tinjil and Delih islands off Banten to investors from Iran.

It has also offered a couple of islets in the Natuna Islands chain off the coast of Central Sulawesi to investors from Oman.

The islands have been offered to the investors to store oil products, the storage of which will be banned in Singapore from 2005.

The institute has worked with state forestry company Perum Perhutani to manage both Tinjil and Delih islands. Perhutani no longer exploits forests on the two islands in a bid to save them from eroding away.

The IPB has secured the permit from Perum Perhutani to use the islands for research on monkeys until 2011.

Currently, there are some 2,500 monkeys, 40 species of plants and 100 species of shrub on Tinjil island.

Agus fears the destruction of the islands if the government allows them to be used as oil storage sites.