USAID helping Borobudur`s rehabilitation with $100,000

Antara News, Mon, March 7 2011

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - US international aid agency USAID is providing 100,000 US dollars to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to rehabilitate the Borobudur temple compound in the aftermath of the recent Mount Merapi eruptions.

According to a US embassy`s press release received here Monday, the aid was given under the US-Indonesia Comprehensive Partnership.

USAID would provide support for the emergency cleanup, including retention of a large local workforce and purchase of equipment for the cleaning operation.

The Comprehensive Partnership is critical to the bilateral relationship and is founded on the shared values of freedom, pluralism, tolerance, democracy and respect for human rights.

Borobudur temple was temporarily closed to visitors late last year when concern about the longer-term effects of ash on the monument emerged.

Indonesia`s Ministry of Culture and Tourism along with the compound`s Site Authority had initiated emergency cleanup measures. Significant work needs to be done in order to reinvigorate tourism - a critical economic resource for the region.

"The support we are providing will help build the livelihoods of affected local communities through their involvement in the rehabilitation of the cultural tourism sector, which is critical to the area?s economy," said USAID Mission Director Walter North.

One of the most active volcanoes in the world, Mount Merapi is located less than 35 kilometers from Borobudur. A series of eruptions in October and November 2010 resulted in the deaths of 322 people and the displacement of more than 135,000 people. The Mount Merapi eruptions covered the Borobudur compound in 4.5 centimeters of volcanic ash.

The Borobudur compound was built between the eighth and ninth centuries using 57,000 cubic meters of volcanic stone. The monument is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 statues. In 1991 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Indonesia and a critical economic resource for the local government.

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Tourists Risk Lives Climbing Deadly Volcano

Jakarta Globe, March 06, 2011        

Boyolali, Central Java. Dozens of Indonesians and foreign tourists are putting their lives at risk by climbing the Merapi Volcano, a rescue worker warned on Sunday.

Mount Merapi erupting last year. Dozens of Indonesians
 and foreign tourists are putting their lives at risk by climbing
 the volcano, a rescue worker warned on Sunday. (JG Photo
/ Boy T Harjanto)   

Samsuri, from the village of Lencoh, said on Sunday that signs warning of the dangers of climbing the dangerous volcano remained in place after the recent deadly eruptions but were ignored.

Muh Sony, a travel guide who escorts climbers, said dozens of tourists, including 25 foreigners on a science expedition, had climbed the volcano in the last two weeks alone.

He said local tour guides were always willing to escort the climbers, particularly foreign tourists, because of the money they received.

Surono, head of Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVMBG), said lahars from the volcano would remain a threat for the next four years.

Merapi, among the world’s most active volcanoes, began erupting on Oct. 26, 2010, and continued until mid-November.

Some 350 residents were killed by the pyroclastic flows that spewed down the slopes of the heavily populated mountain.

Antara

Borobudur’s post-Merapi eruption rehabilitating may take three years: Official

The Jakarta Post, Thu, 02/17/2011

It may take as much as three years to rehabilitate the Borobudur Temple after last year’s eruption of nearby Mount Merapi covered the temple with volcanic ashes and affected the surrounding environment in general, an official said.

“The rehabilitation process includes the revitalization of the environment and the social economic [condition] of local residents,” the Tourism Ministry's director of history, Yunus Satrio Atmojo, said Thursday as quoted by Antara.

He added that ridding the temple’s stones of volcanic sediment would take at least six months.

The next phase would involve planting trees to prevent temperature increase, which can impact on the temple’s stone forms.

Yunus said that activities of local residents had also been affected by the eruption.

“Such a rehabilitation process needs around two to three years for the condition of the temple to return to how it was before the disaster, as long as there are no further Merapi eruptions as intense as the previous ones,” he said.

The Jakarta representative of UNESCO, Hubert Gijzen, said that the organization had donated US$ 3 million to the restructuring process.

Australian travellers stranded due to volcanic ash

News.com.au, AAP January 28, 2011 7:20AM

Stranded passengers wait at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali's city of Denpasar
after their plane to Singapore was cancelled / AFP

• Volcanic ash floating over Indonesia
• Forces flights to be grounded, cancelled
• Hundreds of Aussies face holiday disruption

A FIERY volcano is causing holiday misery for hundreds of Australians with airlines cancelling flights as a large ash cloud floats in the skies above Indonesia.

In echoes of last year's Icelandic volcano chaos, the eruption of 2329-metre-high Tengger Caldera, in east Java, led to the cancellation of about a dozen flights and left passengers stranded on Thursday night.

Virgin Blue and Jetstar both cancelled flights to and from Denpasar, the main airport serving the popular holiday island of Bali.

Jetstar cancelled five flights and diverted another which was already in the air.

The budget airline, a subsidiary of the national carrier Qantas, said it would continue to monitor the situation and advise of any additional cancellations.

Virgin Blue, at 8pm (AEDT) yesterday, said all its flights to and from Bali were cancelled for the next 24 hours.

A spokeswoman said three or four flights were grounded last night and another two cancelled this morning.

"Virgin Blue would like to advise that, as a precautionary measure, all flights to and from Bali have been cancelled for the next 24-hours,'' the airline said in a statement.

It advised guests left stranded in Denpasar to remain in their accommodation.

Air Asia said that none of its flights to Bali had been affected.

A Garuda Indonesia flight from Sydney to Denpasar was listed as having departed at 12.20pm (AEDT) yesterday.

Qantas does not fly to the city.

The Jetstar aircraft due to fly to Denpasar on Thursday were from Sydney and Darwin.

Three flights from Denpasar to Perth, Sydney and Darwin were also grounded by the budget airline.

A sixth Jetstar flight from Perth to Denpasar was diverted to Darwin and is due to return to Perth.

"Safety of our passengers and crew is Jetstar's number one priority and as a result the airline has cancelled tonight's flights between Australia and Denpasar (Bali),'' a Jetstar statement said.

"The airline is closely monitoring the situation and will advise passengers should there be any further impact.

"No other services are affected at this stage.''

The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, part of the Bureau of Meteorology, issued an advisory yesterday saying Tengger Caldera had erupted, with ash extending 200 nautical miles (370km) northeast.

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Mount Bromo's eruption in Indonesia paralyzes tourism

English.news.cn   2010-12-24

JAKARTA, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- Mount Bromo's eruption in Indonesia's East Java province on Friday paralyzed tourism industry as hotels were closed due to thick ashes, detikcom online news reported on Friday.

Hotels of Lava View, Cemara and Bukit Cemara have not received any guest in the past couple of days as ash on the streets was as thick as 15-40 centimeters.

Besides, blackout since Tuesday has been posing difficulties for the hotels to operate. The condition was worsened by disturbed water supply, leaving no choice for the hotels but to cancel reservation.

"We have to shut power down since Tuesday. Increasing eruption is feared to trigger power shorting," said head of local police of Probolinggo regency Adj. Comm Zulfikar.

The volcanic center also warned air operators against volcanic ashes which could disrupt flight.

"There is a warning from the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) that said the volcanic ashes does not just spread around the mountain but also to Sidoarjo and Surabaya cities, Madura Island, Pasuruan regency and to Java Sea. Flight sector must be aware of the condition," Setiawan, a forecaster at the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics of Juanda Airport in the provincial capital city of Surabaya, told suarasurabaya.net.

Editor: Xiong Tong

Granny bites elite force member

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 10/31/2010 1:34 PM

Officers and gentlemen: Army special force (Koppasus) personnel distribute humanitarian aid to people displaced by Mt. Merapi eruption in Kepuharjo refugee center in the Yogyakarta regency of Sleman. Over 15,000 people have sough refuge until Sunday. – Antara/Wahyu Putro

Army special force (Kopassus) soldiers have to undergo taugh training to master combat skills, but they may have never been taught how to persuade senior citizens to leave their homes during a forced evacuation.

Second Sgt. Dwi Andi, a member of the elite force, not only failed to pass the complicated test, but also had his arm bitten by grandma Widi as he was carrying her down the foot of Mt. Merapi in Yogyakarta during the mass evacuation on Saturday.

“She resisted the evacuation and insisted on staying at home with her cattle. But for the sake of her safety, I carried her on my back. She kept fighting and bit my arm,” Dwi told was quoted by kompas.com.

Kopassus soldiers were deployed to evacuate residents of Palem Sari hamlet in Cangkringan district after Mt. Merapi unleashed its biggest explosion on Saturday.

“I had persuaded her, but she refused to be evacuated. Therefore I had to use force,” Dwi recalled.

The soldier took the old woman to Umbulharjo village administration office before admitting her to Panti Nugroho Hospital for medical treatment. The old woman was among the last villagers to be evacuated due to a blackout.

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President asks people to follow orders

Undeterred: A woman carries a stack of wood to a market in Kalibening village in Magelang, Central Java, with Mount Merapi smoking in the background. Residents of villages near the volcano continued with their daily routines despite warnings that the volcano may be on the verge of its deadliest eruption in years. (JP - Antara/Hari Atmoko)

Rest in peace

The Jakarta Post, The Associated Press, Yogyakarta | Thu, 10/28/2010

Relatives pray in the grave for the victims of Mount Merapi eruption during a mass burial in Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta, on Thursday. AP/Irwin Fedriansyah

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No special funeral for Mbah Maridjan: Sultan

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 10/27/2010 7:39 PM

Mount Merapi is seen as sacred in the region

Yogyakarta Governor and Sultan of Yogyakarta Hamengkubuwono X said Wednesday there would not be a special funeral for Mbah Maridjan, who died after refusing to abandon his ceremonial post as caretaker of Mount Merapi’s spirits.

Mbah Maridjan

“There are no special funerals for the Sultanate’s servants. His body has been retrieved by his family and will be buried with the other victims [of the eruption],” Hamengkubuwono said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Maridjan, 83, had been entrusted by the highly respected late Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX to watch over the volcano's spirits. For years he led ceremonies in which rice and flowers were thrown into the crater to appease its spirits. Maridjan had angered officials in the past by refusing to evacuate during Merapi’s eruptions.

“[His refusal to evacuate] was because of his responsibility as caretaker of Mount Merapi,” Hamengkubuwono said.

Maridjan was among 31 people killed by hot ash spewed by Merapi on Tuesday in Umbulharjo village, Sleman, which is located 4 kilometers from the volcano.

Famous for his convictions about his position, Maridjan was reportedly found in a praying position, kneeling facedown on the floor.

A large crowd of people attended the funeral of Maridjan, Merapi's spiritual keeper

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‘Mbah’ Maridjan, Mt. Merapi’s spiritual guardian dies

Spiritual guardian of Indonesian volcano dies

Merapi's volcanic eruption death toll reach 28

A motorcycle lies covered by volcanic ash at a village that is hit by pyroclastic flows from Mount Merapi eruption in Kaliadem, Yogyakarta, on Wednesday. A volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia, spasms from the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which spawns disasters from deep within the Earth. AP/Slamet Riyadi

World’s Oldest High-Altitude Human Settlements Found in Papua New Guinea

Jakarta Globe, October 01, 2010

Sydney. The world’s oldest known high-altitude human settlements, dating back up to 49,000 years, have been found sealed in volcanic ash in Papua New Guinea mountains, archaeologists said on Friday.

Researchers have unearthed the remains of about six camps, including fragments of stone tools and food, in an area near the town of Kokoda, said an archaeologist on the team, Andrew Fairbairn.

“What we’ve got there are basically a series of campsites, that’s what they look like anyway. The remains of fires, stone tools, that kind of thing, on ridgetops,” the University of Queensland academic said.

“It’s not like a village or anything like that, they are these campsite areas that have been repeatedly used.”

Fairbairn said the settlements are at about 2,000 meters and believed to be the oldest evidence of our human ancestors, homo sapiens, inhabiting a high-altitude environment.

“For homo sapiens, this is the earliest for us, for modern humans,” he said. “The nearest after this is round about 30,000 years ago in Tibet, and there’s some in the Ethiopian highlands at around about the same type of age.”

Fairbairn said he had been shocked to discover the age of the finds, using radio carbon dating, because this suggested humans had been living in the cold, wet and inhospitable highlands at the height of the last Ice Age.

“We didn’t expect to find anything of that early age,” he said.

The findings, published in the journal Science, suggest that the prehistoric highlanders of Papua New Guinea’s Ivane Valley in the Owen Stanley Range Mountain made stone tools, hunted small animals and ate yams and nuts.

But why they chose to dwell in the harsh conditions of the highlands, where temperatures would have dipped below freezing, rather than remain in the warmer coastal areas, remains a mystery.

“Papua New Guinea’s mountains have long held surprises for the scientific community and here is another one — maybe they were the home of homo sapiens’ earliest mountaineers,” Fairbairn said.

Agence France-Presse