Ministers Jet Turns Back After Flying into Haze
10/28/97
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Headline: Ministers Jet Turns Back After Flying into Haze
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 10/28/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
JAKARTA, Oct 29 (AFP) - Indonesia's national disaster control
chief was forced to turn back Tuesday after his plane hit dense
smoke over southwest Irian Jaya, reports said Wednesay.
The plane carrying Azwar Anas, also the coordinating minister
for people's welfare, failed to land in the town of Timika and
changed its routing to Wamena in central Irian Jaya, the state
Antara news agency reported.
The minister was on his way to check on drought conditions in
the country's easternmost province, where drought-related diseases
and famine have claimed nearly 500 lives since July.
There have been repeated obstacles for relief missions to the
remote province, where at least 50,000 people are being threatened
by a lack of clean water and adequate food and medical supplies.
Haze has prevented dozens of planes from landing in cities
around the province, some 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) from here
and one of the country's least developed.
Many of Indonesia's 27 provinces are facing the worst drought in
50 years as the global El Nino weather pattern threatens to postpone
rain for several months.
The drought's effects have been exacerbated by man-made forest
fires burning in Irian Jaya, Sumatra and Kalimantan on the
Indonesian half of Borneo island.
Analysts also fear the currency crisis, which has devalued the
rupiah more than 30 percent since July and prompted a review of the
economy by the International Monetary Fund, will aggravate food
shortages in the country.
Government officials have predicted food imports to increase
while the production of such staples as rice, yam, cassava and corn
are all expected to fall in the coming months.
Threats of cholera, influenza, typhoid and other diseases are
also becoming more apparent as those living in the worst drought-hit
areas of Java, Irian Jaya and Sulawesi scramble to find clean water
and food supplies.
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