When government workers in white anti-contamination suits descended on Ceng Kim's farm to slaughter his pigs, claiming they were infected with the bird flu virus that killed three people nearby, he hid inside his house.
He couldn't bear to watch, but the rest of Indonesia saw the dramatic images on television that night: Squealing pigs electrocuted one by one and tossed into a fire.
"My pigs didn't kill anyone," said Kim. "But if the government says they're sick, what can I do?"
PHOTO: AP
Pig farmers are not the only ones scratching their heads -- international experts are bewildered as well.
They say there is no evidence pigs have been infected with avian flu, despite the government's insistence that the animals are contributing to the recent outbreak in Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic country.
Critics say the government is going after pigs because they are an easy target and may divert attention away from fears about the infection in poultry, a staple food for millions of people throughout the country.
Many Muslims consider pigs to be unclean, though pork is regularly eaten by the country's large ethnic Chinese minority, a group that frequently faces discrimination and abuse.
Indonesia is the only country to be culling swine in its fight against bird flu, which has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, killing or forcing the slaughter of hundreds of millions of ducks and chickens. Sixty people have died, mostly Thailand and Vietnam, which announced its latest two deaths on Friday.
Indonesia's first deaths were earlier this month -- a 38-year-old auditor and his two young daughters who lived on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The government initially said the victims had no known contact with birds, and that the closest source of infection appeared to be Ceng Kim's pigs, 15km away. Later, traces of the virus were found in chicken droppings in the family's own backyard.
Though an Indonesian scientist claimed in May he discovered the H5N1 strain of bird flu in pigs, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization says it has no evidence that swine have been infected -- in Indonesia or anywhere else.
The "focus should be on chickens and ducks," said FAO veterinarian Juan Lubroth.
Trisatya Putri Naipospos, Indonesia's top veterinarian, agreed and accused the government of playing "politics" with pig farmers, the majority of whom are ethnic Chinese.
At the same time, many Muslim Indonesians are happy to see ministers appearing on television saying pigs are dirty.
The Agriculture Ministry defended ongoing pig culls, saying they are part of a multi-pronged approach to eradicating bird flu and are in "no way influenced by politics, religion or race." More than 9 million chickens and ducks also have been killed since 2003, it noted.
But Indonesia's larger strategy is not always clear, even to itself.
Days after Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono vowed to carry out mass culls in bird flu-affected areas, he changed his mind, saying only sick animals would be killed.
He blamed a lack of money, saying the government could not afford to compensate farmers for their loss. It's the same argument made 18 months ago when bird flu first surfaced, though no request has been made to Parliament for emergency funds.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS