Thieves resort to looting rice straight from fields

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)