New islets in West Nusa Tenggara

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian archipelago has become richer with the discovery of 42 islets in West Nusa Tenggara in the past eight years, the province's governor said yesterday.

Warsito told 13 visiting House of Representatives legislators in charge of legal affairs now on recess that the province's collection of islands had reached 145, including the two major islands of Sumbawa and Lombok.

The governor said the islets had emerged naturally. Some of them were found in Pelabuhan Lembar and Lombok Barat areas, he added.

But the findings could spell future trouble for the provincial administration because some people have claimed to be the owner of the new islands, according to Warsito.

"The government has to decide the legal status of the islands, lest certain people will illegally stake claims over them," Warsito was quoted by Antara.

Indonesian law says islands in the archipelago belong to the state, not to any individual.

Chief of the survey and mapping agency Paul Suharto said in January that the world's largest archipelago had 17,508 islands, but 67 percent of them were unnamed.

Warsito said the West Nusa Tenggara administration had planned to develop three of the new islands situated in West Lombok regency, including Gili Meno, Terawangan and Air, into tourist resorts. The proposal is being challenged by fishermen who claim to have discovered the islands.

"We don't want to deal with such problems in the future. Both the law enforcers and the National Land Agency should take strict measures against those who have claimed the islands," Warsito said.

The visiting legislators are from Golkar, the United Development Party (PDI) and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) factions, led by Djupri of the PDI. Their trip was part of the House's assignment to seek local inputs for the next session scheduled to start on June 7. (amd)