Thieves resort to looting rice straight from fields

JAKARTA (JP): Grim reports are continuing to pour in from across the country about the toll from the economic crisis, including food shortages, looting and theft.

In Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara -- which for years ranked among the country's most important rice suppliers -- a mob reportedly intercepted trucks transporting the staple and plundered them.

Local officials said the incident over the weekend was caused by frustration because the people witnessed how great quantities of rice were transported to other regions as they struggled to buy the commodity for their daily needs.

In Banyumas, Central Java, local farmers are camping out in their fields following a series of crop thefts committed during the night.

Known as rojeng in the local language, the looting is usually committed by a group of about 20 people. It has occurred in several villages in Purworejo Klampok and Wanadadi districts in Banjarnegara regency, and Rawalo, Patik Raja and Kebasan districts in Cilacap regency.

Parsiah of Legok village in Banjarnegara told The Jakarta Post Wednesday about how four plots of his paddy fields were harvested overnight.

"This is too much," he lamented about his loss, which he estimated at about two metric tons. "All my hope for the harvest is gone. I had been planning to harvest it next week."

Fellow villager Supardi said thieves stole 22 sacks of rice harvest that he had put out to dry in the sun.

Banjarnegara police chief Lt. Col. Sunardi confirmed the thefts and said the cases were still under investigation. He added that many of the thefts occurred after 8 p.m.

"Some groups of looters brought a pickup van to carry their booty," said Purwati, a staff member at the Banjarnegara administration.

The country is facing the worst economic crisis in its history. The number of poor has soared, and cases of rampant theft and looting soared in pockets of the country. In the past two weeks, rioting and looting have occurred in Jakarta and other cities in East Java, Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara and Aceh.

Reports also abound about food shortages in scattered areas including East Nusa Tenggara, East Kalimantan and West Java.

In Yogyakarta, rice prices have reportedly skyrocketed because only 20 percent of the total 800 tons of the commodity needed for the local population's daily consumption was distributed by the local logistics office. The rest is controlled by major traders who also determine the price, according to the chief of the logistics office Thamrin Hamidi.

Supply

Minister of Food and Horticulture A.M. Saefuddin said here Wednesday the 9.2 million tons of rice stocks nationwide would be sufficient for the country's more than 200 million population for the next eight months.

Public stocks totaled seven million tons and an additional 2.2 million tons were available in the National Logistics Agency's stockpile, he said.

Saefuddin was quoted by Antara news agency as saying the current problem was not a rice shortage but its high price.

"The problem in Indonesia now is that there is a price dualism." He was referring to the difference in price between the state-subsidized market and the international market.

Saefuddin said the state would control the price through market operations, by the release of government stocks or purchases from the market to avoid hoarding by rice brokers and exporters.

The UN World Food Program said last Thursday more than 7.5 million Indonesians, or about 3.7 percent of the population, hit by the drought and the economic crisis were likely to experience acute food shortages, with many surviving on one meal a day.

Antara also reported on Tuesday that the government has established a Crisis Center located in the vacant vice presidential palace on Jl. Merdeka Selatan.

The center is equipped with a computer network accessible from every subdistrict administration office in the country to keep the public abreast of developments in the government campaign against poverty and to increase welfare, according to Sudjono, an assistant to the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.

Since last August, the government had been subsidizing a program to provide rice to 7.3 million poor families at Rp 1,000 a kilogram, with each family entitled to buy 10 kilograms a month. The program eventually was expanded to cover 10.2 million families.

The government has also extended work capital assistance to 11.5 million families at a rate of between Rp 20,000 and Rp 320,000 at a 6 percent interest per annum to enable them to improve their welfare. (45/23/swe)