Shrimp farmers demand debt pardon

JAKARTA: Hundreds of shrimp farmers from Lampung rallied in front of the House of Representatives on Wednesday to demand the cancellation of all of their debts.

The farmers, grouped under the Windu Shrimp Farmers Union, who are under contract with the now ailing PT Dipasena Citra Darmaja, once the country's biggest shrimp producer, urged the government to take over the company, separate the company's assets from the farmers' and to issue certificates of pond ownership to the farmers.

The union coordinator, Napian Fais, said the farmers raised the demands in response to irregularities in the cooperation scheme between the farmers and the company over the past 10 years. He said the company had seized their ponds, set prices for its own benefit and lacked transparency when it came to debt repayment.

"We desperately need help from a third party and the government's concrete support," he said.

The farmers were denied entry to the House compound, but their representatives were later allowed to meet with legislators from the Commission IX for financial and development planning affairs.

The company is owned by Sjamsul Nursalim, who is wanted by the Attorney General's Office on corruption charges. -- Antara

Wife of regent detained over graft

JAKARTA: The Jakarta High Court ordered on Wednesday the detention of the wife of the Pacitan, East Java regent, Sri Hartati, in connection to her alleged role in a corruption scandal involving the General Elections Commission (KPU) in 1999.

The suspect is now behind bars at the Pondok Bambu Women's Prison in East Jakarta while investigators examine here case.

Hartati, as the director of PT SAS Kencana Engineering, is being charged with siphoning off Rp 5.23 billion out of Rp 7.86 billion in state funds allocated to purchase 960,000 banners for political parties contesting the 1999 elections.

Chief of the court Muljohardjo said only 240,000 banners were purchased.

He said the detention was required as the suspect failed to cooperate with the prosecutors by frequently defying summonses and due to a fear that she would dispose of evidence.

Other suspects being investigated are former commission members Clara Sitompul and Bambang Mintoko, whose trials will begin on Monday.

The crime carries a maximum penalty of a life sentence. -- Antara

Protected tigers in danger

BANDARLAMPUNG: A total of eight Sumatran tigers (phantera tigris sumatrae) have died since 1998 in the South Bukit Barisan National Park, raising fears of the species' extinction.

A survey conducted by Wildlife Conservation Society-Indonesia Program (WCS-IP) researchers Timothy G. Obrien, Hariyo T. Wibisono, and Margaret F. Kinnaird found that illegal hunting by locals and outsiders in the park had resulted in the decline of tiger's prey and subsequently the tigers themselves.

The survey, conducted between September 1998 and July 2000, discovered the population density of tigers at only 1.6 per 100 square kilometers in certain parts of the park.

The team recommended that in the short run the government should prevent illegal hunting through strict law enforcement, a clampdown on tiger organ trading and animal hunting as a sport in the park. -- Antara

Indonesian people smugglers jailed

SYDNEY: An Australian court on Wednesday sentenced three Indonesians to five years in jail for people smuggling, a local news agency reported.

The Australian Associated Press said the court in the Western Australian city of Perth found Jacky Lerebulan, 19, Ganjang, 33, and Geri Bebri Iraratu, 19, guilty of smuggling asylum seekers from Indonesia to Australia from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, 2001.

West Australian District Court judge Roger Macknay said the men were minor players who likely had little idea of what punishment they could face in Australia for the crime.

The judge called on immigration authorities to consider deporting the two younger men before the completion of their jail terms, the news agency said.

The Indonesians were detained on a vessel that became embroiled in controversy during last year's Australian election campaign after the conservative government accused the 219 mainly Iraqi asylum seekers aboard of threatening to throw their children into the sea if Australia refused to accept them. -- Reuters