Jakarta (ANTARA News) - North Sulawesi`s `Bunaken` National Marine Park in Manado waters where the `Sail Bunaken` festival is being held with hundreds of yachts and warships from many countries taking part, is being proposed for recognition as a World Natural Heritage.

"Many countries have suggested that we propose the inclusion of the Bunaken National Marine Park (TNL) in the World Natural Heritage list. Indonesia has submitted its proposal and is doing its best to have the park with its uniqueness recognized as one of the world natural heritages," Director General of Maritime and Fisheries Supervision affairs Aji Sularso said.

One of the world bodies, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has made an observation of the Bunaken National Marine Park. It seems that UNESCO is interested in the park`s beautiful marine biota that could justify its recognition as a world heritage.

The on-going `Sail Bunaken` event, where tens of warships and over 160 yachts from many countries are expected to take part, is a momentum for North Sulawesi to promote the Bunaken park`s beauty to the international community.

Bunaken is one of Indonesia`s marine parks which hosts marine beauty that could not be found in other countries as it is rich in beautiful marine biota and colorful coral reefs.

The North Sulawesi regional government is also building supporting infrastructure facilities for the Bunaken marine park so that it could qualify as a world natural heritage.

As part of the efforts to attract world attention, the North Sulawesi regional government is now organizing the `Sail Bunaken` festival in the national marine park which will last from August 12 to 20, 2009.

Until Thursday, a total of 75 yachts and six warships from a number of countries have arrived at Bitung port, North Sulawesi to take part in Sail Bunaken.

"At present six warships from four countries have anchored at Bitung port. They will take part in the Sail Bunaken contest," Bitung city spokesman Erwin Kountu said.
Of the six warships, two are from Thailand (Phuttaoetia Naphalai FF 461 - Rattanakosin FS 441), two from Malaysia (KD Kedah 171 and KD Tunas Samudera), one from the Philippines (Manuel L Quezon PS 70) and one from Britain (HMS Echo H87).

The Sail Bunaken activities would be participated in by 28 warships from 14 countries, 163 yachts from 25 nations and a number of Indonesian warships.

About 19 Indonesian warships have berthed at Bitung port, among others KRI Sultan Iskandar Muda, KRI Surabaya, KRI Fatahilah, KRI Arung Samudera and KRI Patola.
"It is expected that about 163 yachts from various countries will take part in the Sail Bunaken activities," the regional government spokesman said.

According to Director General of Maritime and Fisheries Supervision affairs Aji Sularso, the Sail Bunaken festival is the world`s biggest maritime event because it is attended by tens of countries which have sent warships and yachts, a senior official said.

"Sail Bunaken is a momentum for Indonesia to improve its image because Manado being successful in organizing the world`s biggest maritime event," he said in Manado on Thursday.

He said Sail Bunaken which would present sailing and flying pass activities of various warships and fighter planes was a rare world event. Besides, the event`s big maritime and bio-diversity potentials could be converted for the people`s economic activities.

North Sulawesi Governor SH Sarundajang, said the on-going Sail Bunaken festival was expected to improve the tourism industry. He said the world`s maritime event would have a positive impact on the province`s economic development, especially in the tourism sector.

"Sail Bunaken is expected to have a positive impact on the development of the tourism sector in North Sulawesi," he said.

According to the governor, development of the tourism sector in an area would overcome the economic crisis there. "The tourism sector is very important and if it continues to develop well, it will overcome crises of any kind," Sarundajang said.

After all, there is also a yacht rally held along with the sail Bunaken activities, which is expected to contribute about Rp27.72 billion to the incomes of 14 districts in the province.

"The yachts will sail around 14 districts for four months, with an average length of stoppage of four days in each of the districts," Aji Sularso said.

He said that each of the crew (estimated 500 person) is expected to spend US$100 per day. This excludes the spending of about 7,000 warship crew members.

The director general said that up to now 75 participants of the yacht rally had arrived. The other participants are still on the way. There are two entry gates for this year`s yacht rally, namely Darwin in Australia and Kinabalu in Malaysia.

Those sailing from the Darwin gate will pass Saum Laki, Ambon, Ternate and Bitung while yachts sailing from the Kinablu gate will pass through Tarakan before entering the Bitung port. (*)

Source : www.antara.co.id

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) reminded mosque board members here on Friday to increase caution to prevent possible penetration by terrorists, following the recent suicide bombings.

"We must step up scrutiny when inviting religious teachers (uztad). If the teachers we invite speak in that direction (calling on people to become terrorists) and justify jihad through terror actions it means they belong to the group (of terrorists)," MUI associate chairman KH Ma`ruf Amin, said.

The incident at the As Surrur mosque in Telaga Kahuripan, Bogor, West Java, could occur because the people were not alert so that Saefuddin Jaelani (SJ), the alleged recruiter of suicide bombers, succeeded in being accepted at the mosque as a teacher.

"In connection with it mosque board members must now really be very careful when selecting teachers to be used at their mosques," he said.

Board members must conduct continuous supervision so that they would not be caught off-guard. Mosques must also help straighten out people`s understanding that suicide bombings are wrong. "That is not jihad. It is terror action," he said.

Jaelani had recruited a high-school student, Dani Dwi Permana (18), to become "a bride" bringing a bomb and detonate it in the JW Marriott Hotel. Dani joined the terrorist network under the influence of Jaelani whom people in Telega Kahuripan viewed as a good and pious person.

Ma`ruf Amin said, generally the suicide bombers did not have profound religious knowledge so that they were trapped into holding short-sighted views that led them to committing terrorist acts.

"Islam does not condone violence. Islam is not like that. Terrorism is not jihad and jihad is not terrorism," he said.

Amin denied that many mosques and Islamic boarding schools in the country had become the habitat of terrorists, saying Islamic boarding schools in the country generallly were not radical.

Terror masterminds generally recruit people who have narrow religious views, he said.(*)

Source : www.antara.co.id

Pekanbaru (ANTARA News) - Members of the family of Ibrohim alias Boim, the terror suspect who was killed in a police raid in Temanggung, Central Java, last Saturday, have gone to Jakarta to pick up his body.

Contacted by phone from here on Wednesday, Ibrohim`s brother, Abdullah Sukri who works for Al Ittihad foundation in Pekanbaru, said he had arrived in Jakarta to pick up Ibrohim`s body.

"I have arrived in Jakarta to pick up the body of my younger brother, Ibrohim," Abdullah Sukri said at the Soekanto police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, on Wednesday.

Abdullah, who went to Jakarta with Ibrohim`s wife, said he never dreamed that his younger brother would be involved in inactivities such as the bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta on July 17, 2009.

Chief of the National Police Headquarters` public relations division, Insp Gen Nanan Soekarna, said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the body of a terrorist, shot dead in a raid in Temanggung, Central Java, last Saturday was not that of Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, but of Ibrohim.

Ibrohim was wanted for his role in the July 17, 2009 bombings at the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in Jakarta.

Soekarna made the statement to the press at the Soekanto police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, in the company of Police Health and Medical Center chief Brig Gen Edy Saparwoko.

He said the police could not immediately announce the identity of the dead man from Tembanggung because they had to wait for the results of DNA tests.

"Ibrohim played a dominant role in the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Mega Kuningan in Jakarta," Soekarna said, adding Ibrohim was a florist at one of the hotels. He had helped to carry bombs into the hotel and hide them in Room 1808 of the JW Marriott Hotel.

The almost simultaneous bomb explosions at the two luxury hotels claimed nine lives including six foreigners.(*)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Bank Indonesia (BI), the country`s central bank, entered the money market here Thursday morning to help stabilize the rupiah in Jakarta interbank spot transactions.

The Indonesian currency which had previously tended to be stable traded at Rp9,945-Rp9,960 per US dollar.

BI intervened in the market to ease market pressure following continued demand for the local unit, Kostaman Thayib, retail banking director of PT Bank Mega Tbk., said.

The central bank`s intervention eventually made the local currency less volatile, he said.

The rupiah had in fact surged 15 points in the first minutes of morning trading, but its appreciation did not last long as it returned to the level of Rp9,945 per US dollar at the market`s close by late morning.

He believed the market sentiment about the rupiah was still negative despite improvements in the country`s economic fundamentals.

But investors still considered Indonesia a potential market and therefore the Indonesian currency still had a chance to strengthen again, he said.

Kostaman Thayib was optimistic that the rupiah would surge in afternoon trading as Bank Indonesia continued to release US dollars and buy the local currency.(*)

sumber : antaranews

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The terrorist shot dead in a raid in Temanggung, Central Java, last Saturday was not Malaysian extremist Noordin Mohammad Top, police said.
The chief of the National Police Headquarters` public relations division, Insp Gen Nanan Soekarna, said here on Wednesday, DNA tests on the body from Temanggung proved it belonged to Ibrohim, who was wanted for his role in the July 17, 2009 bombings at the JW Marriot and Ritz Carlton hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in Jakarta.

Soekarna made the statement to the press at the Soekanto police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, in the company of Police Health and Medical Center chief Brig Gen Edy Saparwoko.

He said the police could not immediately announce the identity of the dead man from Tembanggung because they had to wait for the results of the DNA tests.

"Ibrohim played a dominant role in the bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Mega Kuningan in Jakarta," Soekarna said, adding Ibrohim was a florist at one of the hotels. He had helped to carry bombs into the hotel and hide them in Room 1808 of the JW Marriott Hotel.

The almost simultaneous bomb explosions at the two luxury hotels claimed nine lives including six foreigners.

Meanwhile, Brig Gen Edy Saparwoko said the police had tried to match the DNA of the slain terrorist in Temanggung with samples of the DNA of Noordin M Top`s son in Johor, Malaysia, and of some of his other family members in Cilacap and Klaten, Central Java, but the results were negative.

Saparwoko said the police then compared the dead man`s DNA with those of Ibrohim`s son and daughter, and they matched one hundred percent.

Noordin is one of Asia`s most wanted terror suspects blamed for a series of attacks in Indonesia since 2003, including the twin suicide blasts at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last month.(*)

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is not disappointed about the fact that anti-terror police failed to get Noordin M Top in their recent raid in Temanggung, a minister said.

Yudhoyono in fact praised the police for being able to catch a number of terrorists, Minister/State Secretary Hatta Rajasa said here on Wednesday.

The police`s successful raids, including in Temanggung (Central Java) and Jatiasih (Bekasi, West Java) should be appreciated following the bomb blasts which hit JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta last July 17, Rajasa said after accompanying the head of state in receiving four new foreign ambassadors at the Merdeka Palace.

In hunting terrorists, the police not only targeted fugitive Malaysian-born extremist Noordin M Top but also other suspects such as Ibrohim, he said.

The police had made significant achievements by arresting and killing a number of terror network members, he said.

A new regulation was needed to limit the movements of terrorists who were still at large in the country, he said.

"It`s time to issue a new law that will make us more capable of fighting terrorism in order to protect the people and the country," he said.

Earlier, Inspector General Nanan Soekarno, a spokesman of the National Police, announced that the terrorist who was killed in a police raid in Temanggung last Saturday (Aug. 8) was Ibrohim, not Noordin M Top.

Ibrohim played an important role in the bombing of the JW Marriot and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta last July 17, 2009, where nine people were killed and and 53 others, including foreigners, were injured.

The Indonesian government was determined to intensify efforts to find Noordin M Top and other terrorists following the bombings of two hotels in the Mega Kuningan area in Jakarta last July 17, 2009.(*)