News

august 10, 2008
JAKARTA - The Indonesian government has decided to increase the working capital for PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines with some 300 billion Rupiah (22 million euro). The funds will be used for lay-off premiums for 1.300 employees and to upgrade the 19 planes that are owned by the company. This decision was made during a cabinet meeting that was chaired by president Yudhoyono.

"Some 223 billion Rupiah will be used for lay-off premiums for some 1.300 staff members. They will receive the money this month," said Sofyan Djalil directly after the meeting. The capital injection is done to save the company and to keep it operational for flights in the eastern part of Indonesia. The government also agreed on a new business plan that would put propeller planes back into operation.

Merpati will also move it's hub from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta to Hassanuddin Airport near Makassar. 850 flights, flight engineers and crew will be handed over to Garuda Indonesia temporarily. They will still be employees of Merpati, but they will get retrained at Garuda.

october 19, 2007
JAKARTA - At least 31 people have died and 35 more are missing after wooden passenger ferry Acita III sank off the coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 125 more have been rescued.

The vessel capsized and sank at approximately 9 p.m. local time last night, going down near the port town of Bau Bau. It has been suggested that bad weather was the cause of the disaster, but Bau Bau mayor Amirul Tamin has told reporters that he believes overcrowding was a much more likely cause.

An alternative explanation was offered by local police chief Mochammad Badrus, who says that the ship capsized after large numbers of passengers clambered onto an upper deck in attempts to gain mobile phone signals as the ferry neared land. Local residents and fisherman say they could hear people screaming for help as the accident unfolded.

Passenger manifests are rare and usually inaccurate when they are available in Indonesia, so passenger numbers are unconfirmed, but the ship was thought to have been carrying 150 - 200 people. However, Tamin has said that the ferry should only have been carrying a maximum of 30 passengers.

July 27, 2007
Jakarta (Antara News) - Indonesian helicopters dropped food and other relief supplies on Friday to thousands of people stranded on Sulawesi island by floods and landslides.

Bad weather had hampered relief operations in the remote area where about 85 people have died and nearly 8,000 people displaced from their homes submerged by landslides and floods up to three metres (10 ft) deep.

"We have sent 20 tonnes of medicines and food that can last for the next three days. We dropped the aid from helicopters," Sutrisno, head of emergency aid at the national disaster relief coordination agency, told Reuters.

"The weather is better today. But some roads are damaged hampering the transportation of heavy machinery. So far, people have evacuated the victims."

Another relief official said authorities had not been able to pull out many bodies because of a lack of heavy machinery and equipment.

Syamsul Ma'arif, head of the disaster relief coordination agency, said air and sea transportation was able to reach people in remote areas because the weather was good, but they still needed fuel.

Landslides occur frequently in Indonesia, where tropical downpours can quickly soak hillsides stripped of trees.

Central Sulawesi is also one of Indonesia's key cocoa growing areas. The Southeast Asian country is the world's third largest producer of cocoa beans.

The PAK Project in Torajaland is based in a safe area and far away from the disaster.

May 19, 2007
Jakarta ( AFP) - More than a thousand people have fled inland along Indonesia's coastline after tidal waves destroyed houses and fishing boats this week, officials said Saturday. Residents have taken refuge in schools and other government buildings after high waves pounded coastlines from northern Sumatra island to the southern tourist resort island of Bali, officials said. "The number of people that fled their houses has reached 1,246 people," Setio Sutarto from the National Disaster Management Agency told AFP. He said West Java and West Sumatra were the regions worst hit by the tidal waves, which started hitting the coast late Thursday. Eleven provinces have been affected, including Aceh, which was devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, the Kompas daily said. Hundreds of homes have been badly damaged and others swept away in fishing villages dotting the coastlines, the newspaper said. Television pictures showed wooden homes flattened and residents searching through water-soaked debris for their belongings. Fishermen have been advised against going out to sea in affected areas, Kompas said.

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