Suharto, World Bank Responsible for Forest Fires
10/4/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Suharto, World Bank Responsible for Forest Fires
Source: Rob Wesley-Smith, B Rur Sc, Troppo Rural Consulting
a spokeperson for Australians for a Free East Timor
PhFx (61 0) 8 89832113 rwesley@ozemail.com.au
Box 2155 Darwin NT Australia 0801
Date: 10/4/97
Suharto and World Bank primarily to Blame for Forest Fires
from Saturday 4/10/97, Darwin, Rob Wesley-Smith
(This expanded article is reposted here, even though it appeared
earlier as an AFFET press release of 28/9/97, which no media used.
Please forward to outlets if you think it is useful. I have had some
professional experience in fire management.)
The DISASTROUS FOREST FIRES through SE Asia, and the drying of the
rivers in New Guinea, are all INTERRELATED, and the fault of greedy
rapacious developers.
General SUHARTO in particular, the dictator/president of the military
government of Indonesia, and the world's number one coloniser, is
primarily to blame. HE must RESIGN!
At last some people are calling for Ministerial heads to roll, but of
course to call from within Indonesia for Suharto to go could lay
oneself open to treason charges. This is part of the corrupt web
woven to protect Suharto and his wealthy clique of family and cronies.
The WORLD BANK has aided the stupid genocidal policies by financing
transmigration projects, and the wholesale devastation of
rain forests. This is ongoing, with huge projects happening along
the West Papuan border, largely for military reasons.
The MINING industry also shares blame, as mines such as OK Tedi in
western PNG, and Freeport in West Papua, tip their mega-huge loads of
tailings directly into the rivers, resulting in them silting up and
becoming shallow. With the present reduced rainfall period, of course
they dry up quicker.
A relation of mine with nearly 50 years experience in both sides of New
Guinea, told me recently of the heartache in observing on flights the
length of the country, that ALL THE RIVERS RUN RED - all due to the
mining and logging.
The ACTUAL RAINFALL is also reduced by the reduction of the rain
forests. And when forest is cleared, what does fall tends to run off
rather than soak in. This means that streams run fast and early,
carrying extra erosion material, and then dry up quickly, as there is
less water in the ground to gradually filter out as happens naturally.
All things are interrelated, that's what ECOLOGY is all about. Surely
Suharto's mystics have told him that, if not his generals.
Warnings of these disasters-in-waiting have been ignored. For example,
the excellent Melbourne produced magazine "Inside Indonesia" devoted
its April 1988 issue to highlight the problem, with the cover banner
reading "Forest Fires - loggers must take the blame"
The ROOT CAUSES are greed and overpopulation. The rapacious GREED
of the Suhartos and their mates must be swept away, and probably will
in due course, if not in time to save whole tribes, ecosystems and
even nations from extinction.
OVERPOPULATION must be solved within countries. If the World Bank
continues to finance transmigration to places like West Papua and East
Timor, where the indigenous populations are pushed out and often
killed, it must be charged with conspiracy to GENOCIDE.
The natural systems demand and require RESPECT. The indigenous
peoples, in touch with their lands, did not create or allow the sort
of devastation we now see. Even in north Australia the fire
management practices of the European managers are currently allowing
massive fires at present.
Proper FIRE MANAGEMENT practices require that FIRES, where necessary,
must be small and often, and mostly during damper cooler times. This
is largely done to reduce the flammable biomass which causes such
destructive fires in the Dry times. There are times when such fires
are needed, for land management in savannah woodlands and even desert
pastoral lands, to reduce the encroachment of woody weeds; but NEVER
in Rainforests.
The RESISTANCE in East Timor and West Papua has to learn to be
pro-active and light COOL fires to ensure forest cover remains,
necessary for their own survival. When the world forces Indonesia to
withdraw its military and these lands return to their rightful and
lawful owners, only then can we expect less-destructive management
regimes to be implemented.
Rob Wesley-Smith, B Rur Sc, Troppo Rural Consulting
a spokeperson for Australians for a Free East Timor
PhFx (61 0) 8 89832113 rwesley@ozemail.com.au
Box 2155 Darwin NT Australia 0801