Indonesia's environment minister on yesterday labeled illegal loggers "terrorists" for rampant deforestation said to be the main cause of a devastating flood on Sumatra island that left more than 200 people either dead or missing.
The flash flood on the western Indonesian island swept away scores of dwellings, many of which served as guesthouses for tourists visiting a famous orangutan reserve.
Rescuers with chain saws and bulldozers had pulled out 92 corpses by yesterday from debris -- mostly uprooted trees, logs, rocks and building materials -- piled two stories high.
Families reported more than 150 people missing, the private Metro TV yesterday quoted village chief Yusmaidah as saying. Officials cautioned, however, that some people who had left the area before the floods may appear on missing lists, inflating the figure.
Environmentalists say unchecked logging in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago with 210 million inhabitants, disrupts the natural absorption and flow of rainwater from the highlands, triggering floods and landslides that sweep into the valleys.
Government officials admit that illegal felling in Leuser Park may have blocked a waterway high in the mountains, causing a huge flash flood when they collapsed Sunday night in Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra.
"These illegal loggers are like terrorists," Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim said at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
He said the environment ministry has given instructions to clear the protected forests of illegal loggers in Sumatra but "it's extremely difficult to prosecute them because we are dealing with corrupt officials and business people."
In her first public comments since the flooding, President Megawati Sukarnoputri sent her "deepest condolences to those who have lost family members or suffered from the disaster."
Megawati ordered a high-level ministerial team to assess the damage.
Also yesterday, aid workers began distributing five tonnes of rice and hundreds of packets of instant noodles to survivors.
Most of the victims were villagers -- many of them workers in the local tourism industry and their families. Five of the dead were foreigners -- two Germans, two Austrians and a Singaporean.
"I am very lucky that I found my wife and three children. My neighbor has three relatives who disappeared," said a survivor, M. Indra, the owner of a guesthouse called Jungle Inn.
He added that he spent 180 million rupiah (US$210,000) to renovate his guesthouse, which was still standing.
"But there won't be any tourists coming here for a long time," he said.
Logging has also shrunk forests where endangered tigers, elephants and orangutans live. Sumatra has several national parks that are home to threatened animals.
Longgena Ginting, executive director of Walhi, Indonesia's largest environmental group, said that up to 20 percent of Leuser National Park, which overlooks Bukit Lawang, was deforested.
Corruption and poor law enforcement -- familiar complaints in Indonesia -- means the logging goes largely unchecked.
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