Nias Online

Monday, May 09, 2005

JAKARTA: Slovakia, a small Central European country, has sent 40 tons of humanitarian aid for Dec. 26 tsunami victims in Aceh and Nias Island in North Sumatra, the Slovakian Embassy said on Sunday.

"A ship carrying 40 tons of humanitarian relief, including movable assets such as generator sets, field hospitals, tents, covers and medical equipment, medicine, drinking water and clothes from Slovakia arrived in Jakarta on May 1. This aid will be handed over to the Indonesian government next week (this week)," Slovakian Ambassador to Indonesia told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

The embassy's deputy head of mission Martin Culak said that the Slovakian government in cooperation with the Slovak Red Cross and Indonesian Red Cross will build a primary school in Banda Aceh. — JP

Thursday, April 28, 2005

DENPASAR: The Bali Hotels Association (BHA) this week disbursed the final portion of US$41,000 in cash donations to earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Aceh and Nias island.

The final $28,000 in funds will be divided equally between three foundations currently providing direct relief in the affected areas.

These foundations are: Yayasan IDEP of Ubud, the Bali Crisis Center for Natural Disaster in Denpasar, and Jakarta International School Cares.

"We sought to contribute our funds to reliable and transparent foundations that have direction and involvement from the local community. This approach aims to ensure our funds reach priority projects to sustain victims and their community redevelopment," association chairman Robert Kelsall said.

On Dec. 27, BHA began raising funds and taking food, clothing, linen and medical donations from among its 63 member hotels and the public.

On Dec. 31, $13,000 worth of non-perishable food supplies were purchased and sent directly by ship from Jakarta to the western coastal towns of Aceh.

Seven container truckloads of donated goods were shipped courtesy of Santa Fe and Crown Relocations from Bali to Jakarta where they were loaded onto ships carrying relief aid to Aceh throughout January and February.

The last load of goods, scheduled for shipment in late March was diverted to Nias island, which was hit by 8.2 and 6.2-magnitude quakes on March 28 and April 3 respectively.

Besides hotel members', cash contributions were made by Bali Golf & Country Club, the Thailand community, PT Harum Indah Sari, Bali Villas.com, Tanjung Sari Hotel, Sonja & Bernd Horwedel, Radisson Kestrel Hotel in Australia, and DiscIndo sports club in Jakarta.

The complete details of BHA's relief funds and assistance efforts are available at www.balihotelsassociation.com —JP

Thursday, April 21, 2005 The Jakarta Post, Gunung Sitoli, Medan

An official announced on Wednesday that the death toll from the earthquake on Nias island in North Sumatra was now at 839.

Of the victims, 682 were residents of Nias regency and the rest were from South Nias regency, Nias Regent Binahati Baeha said during a meeting with North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal, Antara news agency reported.

Officials had been reporting the death toll at about 500 victims before the announcement by Binahati, who said the death toll could go even higher as more bodies were discovered in the coming days.

The west coast of Sumatra was rattled by an 8.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28, with Nias island being the worst hit. Thousands fled their homes when the quake struck, fearing a tsunami similar to the one that devastated Aceh in December last year.

Three weeks after the quake and the government has deployed additional ships to speed up the distribution of relief to the survivors on Nias.

The head of the North Sumatra Disaster Coordination Post, Nainggolan, reported that four more ships — Mega Buana, Camar Laut I, Camar Laut II and Rahman Baru — left from Sibolga Port to Nias island carrying aid for the victims.

With these four ships, there are now 11 vessels — four from the Navy, four from the central government and three ferries — distributing aid to quake survivors.

"The ships will operate as long as there is aid waiting to be distributed to Nias. Anyone can use these ships for free," Nainggolan said.

He said there were still several areas in Nias and South Nias regencies that relief workers were having difficulty reaching. These areas include Afulu, Alasa, Lahewa and Sirombu in Nias regency, and Lolomatua, Lolowau and the Batu islands in South Nias regency.

"We hope with the additional ships, all distribution problems will be resolved," he said.

The head of the North Sumatra Trade and Industry Office, T. Azwar Aziz, said his office was the first to make use of the additional ships on Monday. He said three ships were used to transport commodities such as rice, sugar and cooking oil to Nias.

He said the commodities were expected to revive trade activities on the island after the disaster.

"We will sell the commodities to traders on Nias at below-market prices. Our mission is to revive retail activities on Nias," Aziz told The Jakarta Post by phone from Nias.

He said the commodities were of average quality but priced below market prices. For instance, a kilogram of sugar will be sold for Rp 5,000, below the market price of Rp 6,500.

He said trade had begun to return to Nias, spurred by North Sumatra businesspeople buying the island's plantation products such as chocolate and rubber.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With Jakarta kids now firmly belonging to the MTV generation, many fear they will grow up to be indifferent to others around them.

These fears, however, would seem to be little more than fears, as shown by 17 elementary school students who still dearly care about other people and even animals.

While the media and the public at large gradually lost interest in the tsunami and the earthquakes that struck Aceh and Nias, and moved on to no less depressing news from other parts of the country, the fifth graders of an elementary school in Jakarta did not forget.

From a mere school project, they wrote essays and published their compilations in a beautifully illustrated book in order to collect money for the victims.

"These essays were actually written for an environmental project as we were talking about endangered species in Indonesia," said Ann Hutchinson, a teacher with the private Mentari elementary school.

"We also showed a documentary on Papua in our classroom," said Ann.

Ibu Ann, as she is affectionately called, said that she helped edit the punctuation and grammar in her students' stories. "That's all. The story ideas and the flow of each story are originally the children's," Ann said.

One of the youthful authors, Kartika, who said that she loves to draw and write, and swims like a fish, gave a broad smile while nodding her head when asked if she cared about children whom she did not know personally.

Other students were seen nodding or smiling in affirmation when Dilla Amran, who acted as the emcee at the book launch on Sunday, announced to the audience that the book was "the children's way of helping their fellow children in Aceh and Nias."

"The proceeds from the sales of the book will all go to the children in Aceh and Nias. That's what they want. We are only helping to publish and sell this book, which is available in bookstores in Jakarta for Rp 50,000," Dilla from Jakarta Books told The Jakarta Post.

One thousand copies were printed in the initial run.

As the devastation and misery were, of course, far removed from the kids, they wrote about things they were familiar with: fables and stories on friendship, honesty and solidarity.

"I love small animals because they too exist and must be protected. That's why I wrote about a squirrel who helped a trapped tiger," Kartika said.

A huge fan of Green Day, Maura wrote about a baby gorilla that was brought up by a rat and later on — in Maura's words, after many long and boring years — began to believe that he himself was a rat. But the unfortunate gorilla finally discovered his own identity after an incident with a group of tigers.

"I heard about the situation (in Aceh and Nias) and it is good for us to be able to help them," Maura said when asked to comment on the charity effort.

Monday, April 18, 2005 The Jakarta Post, Medan/Padang/Yogyakarta

A major earthquake shook Nias island late on Saturday, causing panic among residents, an official said on Sunday. No fatalities were reported, but the undersea quake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale added to the trauma of residents following the massive quake on March 28 that killed hundreds of people.

An official at the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Medan, Albertus Simanullang, said the epicenter of Saturday's quake, which lasted for 10 seconds, was about 44 kilometers northeast of Gunung Sitoli, the capital of Nias regency.

The 32-kilometer deep quake hit about midnight, leading to a half-hour power blackout in area. Residents of Gunung Sitoli, including those living in shelters, rushed to higher ground for fear of a tsunami.

Simanullang said the earthquake on Saturday was the largest since the March 28 quake that measured 8.7 on the Richter scale. The tremblor on Saturday could be felt in cities in Sumatra such as Padang, Padang Sidempuan, Sibolga, Sidikalang and Medan. The quake caused cracks in some buildings but no building collapses were reported.

Separately, a earthquake expert from the Sepuluh November Institute of Science, Rachmat Purwono, said studies showed the only area on Java island at risk of a tsunami was West Java province.

According to Rachmat, the only areas in Indonesia at risk of earthquake-triggered tsunamis, outside of Aceh, are Bengkulu, Lampung, Bandarlampung, West Java, Banten, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, North Maluku, Palu and Gorontalo.

"The areas that are safe from the threat of tsunamis include Jakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi and Kalimantan," Rachmat said as quoted by Antara news agency.

While Rachmat did not include Yogyakarta in those areas at risk of tsunamis, authorities in the area are working to set up an early warning system for large wave caused by earthquakes.

An official said on Saturday the Yogyakarta provincial administration would set up large sirens on Depok Beach in Bantul, and on Trisik and Glagah beaches in Kulonprogo regency. The sirens will be sounded if there is earthquake in the area, said Raymond Sofyan, the head of Yogyakarta's Disaster Prevention Center.

The plan was devised after a message from the Minister of Home Affairs called on governors across the country to set up early warning systems for tsunamis and earthquakes.

Separately, volcanologists lowered the status of Mount Talang in Solok district, West Sumatra, to watch from alert status on Sunday, as activity at the mountain decreased. Mount Talang erupted last Tuesday, forcing thousands of nearby residents to flee their homes.

As activity at the volcano has decreased, the Solok administration has told residents they can return to their homes, the coordinator of the Solok Disaster Prevention Center, Elfi Syahlan, said.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post/Medan

The North Sumatra provincial administration, which is in charge of disaster mitigation on Nias island, on Thursday announced that it would give ample time for the foreign relief workers involved in humanitarian relief efforts to stay in the area, and gave assurances as regards their safety.

A spokesman for the North Sumatra Natural Disaster Coordinating Unit (Satkorlak), R.E. Nainggolan, said that the foreign volunteers in Nias had helped considerably to ease the burden on Satkorlak in conducting relief efforts and their presence was still greatly needed.

Nainggolan said that based on these considerations, the provincial administration had decided not to set any time limit for the foreign volunteers until the situation in Nias had improved.

According to Nainggolan, the decision had been taken due to the fact that Nias, unlike Aceh, was not a conflict area and that the foreign volunteers would be in no danger.

"It's up to them how long they want to stay in Nias. We will not limit their stay. Their presence is still needed, as they have proven themselves to be totally dependable in helping victims over the past two weeks. The disaster mitigation efforts would definitely be slow without their help," Nainggolan told The Jakarta Post.

Nainggolan added that the number of foreigners who had arrived in Nias since the disaster stood at 446, and that they were drawn from eight United Nations organizations and 71 non-governmental organizations. There were also 36 foreign journalists in the area.

Most of them came from Singapore, the United States of America, the Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, France, Malaysia, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Hungary, Norway, New Zealand and China. There were also 520 local volunteers from 41 organizations doing relief work in Nias, which was recently rocked by an 8.7-magnitude earthquake that killed hundreds of people on Nias and on surrounding islands.

Nainggolan said that while the number of foreign volunteers kept increasing, some had also returned home. Those who had left were from Hungary, Singapore and Australia.

According to Nainggolan, all of the foreign relief workers on Nias are being coordinated by the United Nations Organization Coordinating Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), assisted by three liaison officers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He added that every foreign volunteer doing humanitarian work in Nias would be treated well.

"We will treat them like members of our own family and their safety will be the full responsibility of our security personnel," said Nainggolan, who is also the head of the North Sumatra Information and Communications Agency.

Polonia Airport Immigration Unit director Sigit Roesdianto said that most of the foreign volunteers had been issued visas on arrival or short-stay entry permits. About 190 of them had already returned home.

Nainggolan said that Satkorlak was grateful for the large amount of foreign aid donated to the quake victims in Nias. To date, hundreds of tons of foreign aid from a number of donor countries had arrived on Nias.

The aid was being distributed to quake victims in Nias and South Nias regencies. Nearly everywhere on Nias had received sufficient aid three weeks after the disaster.

However, he added that there was still a shortage of tents for those who had been displaced.

"We still require about 3,000 tents because many of the displaced are still afraid to return home. They are still sleeping in the open air without tents," said Nainggolan, adding that the UNHCR had recently delivered about 752 tents.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

The Cahaya Abadi (Endless Sun), a private relief boat carrying aid to Aceh and Nias from a Bali-based non-governmental organization (NGO) sunk off the coast of Nias on April 11 at 2 p.m.

The 700-ton vessel had just finished offloading a cargo of rice and aid to the village of Afulu on the south coast of Nias, North Sumatra, when it struck an uncharted reef in a heavy swell.

The boat sunk within twenty minutes. Some of the Indonesian crew of 15, plus five volunteers, swam safely to shore and the others were picked up by fishing boats. All are safe.

The Cahaya Abadi had delivered aid from Bali-based Yayasan IDEP and 87 tons of rice donated by the World Food Program to four isolated communities in Nias before the incident occurred.

It had just completed its fourth rice delivery when the accident occurred. The vessel, leased by Yayasan Andaru Selaras (a Jakarta-based NGO), was carrying relief goods from Yayasan IDEP, the World Food Program, Project Concern International and other donors.

"We are grateful for the good news that no one on board was seriously injured," said Yayasan IDEP executive director Petra Schneider. "We are committed to continuing our Aceh aid and recovery projects with the help of our generous donors, volunteers and staff."

The many major earthquakes in the immediate area since December 26 have created an unstable seabed situation, with uncharted, hard-to-navigate coral reefs.

"The crew and volunteers were aware that they were putting themselves in a dangerous and volatile situation," said Chris Gentry, founder of Yayasan Andaru Selaras.

"I want to thank those who have put their lives at risk for the people of Aceh and North Sumatra. Despite the trauma and hardship they have experienced their commitment has not waned. Aid delivery at this difficult time will continue." — JP

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

At least 42 quake victims in South Nias regency reportedly died in emergency shelters due to a lack of medical attention and food aid, an official claimed on Monday.

Secretary of the South Nias earthquake disaster coordination post, Herman Laiya, said most of the victims who died in the shelters after the 8.7-magnitude earthquake rocked the island on March 28 were children, teenagers and elderly residents from Gomo and Teluk Dalam districts.

The victims died due to a lack of medical attention after suffering serious injuries, such as broken bones and concussion, he added.

Herman said hundreds of South Nias residents had suffered serious injuries and were still waiting for medical attention.

He also blamed slow food aid distribution as a factor causing death among people injured in the earthquake.

"Some people injured in the quake stayed in the shelters for two or three days, then died. I'm worried the number will increase if medical and food assistance does not immediately reach this regency," Herman told The Jakarta Post by phone from Medan.

He put the number of deaths in the regency as a result of the earthquake at 142 people, 42 of whom had later died in emergency shelters.

Many refugees, he added, still preferred to stay in hilly areas, sleeping in tents, because of concerns about aftershocks.

According to coordination post data, the number of displaced persons in South Nias regency stood at 3,749 people, and 23,855 from Nias regency.

Secretary of the North Sumatra disaster prevention post, Edy Aman Saragih, said he had not yet received reports about people with injuries who subsequently died in the shelters, expressing doubt that people died from lack of food or medical attention.

He said that two weeks after the quake, medical services and food aid distribution were operating effectively in the island's two regencies.

However, Herman said food aid to South Nias was not being evenly distributed because several bridges were still down.

"Food aid distribution is still limited to South Nias. Since the quake, we've only distributed rice on two occasions to people, each time giving them two cupfuls," he said.

Information coordinator at the Nias regency coordination post, R.E. Nainggolan, said that no one in the regency had died for want of medical attention or food aid. The quake claimed 492 lives in the regency, and 50 are still missing.

All hospitals and clinics in Nias regency were back in operation and providing free medical services, he said.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

After his hometown on Nias island was shattered by an earthquake, life is no longer the same for seven-year-old Alui Zalukhu.

He has been at the Pirngadi hospital in Medan for over a week, all alone. He was separated from his family when the 8.7-magnitude quake destroyed his house in Hombolate village in Afulu district. Three days after the quake, he had to be taken to Medan because of his broken legs.

But the quake left a scar on the boy's soul, giving him nightmares, and causing him to wake up screaming almost every night.

Amagamawa Gea, a 65-year-old Nias resident whose son is being treated next to Alui at the hospital, said the boy rarely talks, usually not even responding to those wanting to talk to him. But the boy talked once about his parents.

"He's certain that his parents are still alive. He said his father's name is Obedi Zalukhu, but he couldn't remember the name of his mother or sisters," said the resident of Tuhembeua, Nias.

It was when the old man mentioned Alui's family that the boy suddenl spoke in Nias language. "For sure, my parents are still alive", the boy said.

Amagamawa said Alui was going through a very difficult time due to his injuries, his nightmares and loneliness.

"Poor kid. He must miss his parents so much. They still haven't come for him. As a fellow resident of Nias, I feel obligated to look after him," Amagamawa said.

The quake left many other children, like Alui, traumatized.

Blessing Gulo, 6, and his sister Milka Gulo, 7, have been at Medan hospitals for a week too. Blessing is being treated at Pirngadi hospital, while Milka is at Elisabeth hospital with their mother, Lisma Jacobis.

Their father, Yulianus Gulo, said the children were now sleeping very restlessly. Every night after the quake, Blessing has had nightmares, he said.

"When he wakes up, he looks shocked. His temperature also rises and then he cries for more than an hour," said Yulianus, who is staying with Blessing.

The 35-year-old church pastor from Gunung Sitoli said his daughter, Milka, was previously in a critical state, and could not even open her eyes for the first four days in the hospital. On her fifth day, she finally opened her eyes, but she rarely has spoken.

Yulianus said that at the time of the disaster, his house in Jl. Diponegoro in Gunung Sitoli collapsed onto his wife and two children, while he was outside the house. Yulianus said that Milka suffered more compared to her mother and brother.

"Milka was bleeding from the mouth, nose and ears. At the time, I was pessimistic that she would survive because of the injuries," he said.

She was taken to a hospital in the North Sumatra town of Sibolga. "But because the equipment at the hospital was inadequate, she was sent here, to Medan," Yulianus said.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

JAKARTA: Vice President Jusuf Kalla told Nias and North Sumatra people to remain calm despite rumors that a tsunami was imminent in the area.

"Rumors are everywhere … in Nias, Padang and along the west coast of Sumatra. The government always advises the people not to panic," he said on Friday after attending a function at the Golkar Party head office.

Kalla, who also leads Golkar, was responding to a report that hundreds of Nias people had moved to higher ground or other locations due to fears of a tsunami and bigger earthquakes.

He suggested that people stay alert, but said the government could not stop them from abandoning their homes. — JP

Saturday, April 09, 2005 Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Teluk Dalam, Nias

Sorake beach in Southern Nias is like heaven for surfers due to its waves that characteristically break from right to left, creating a long tube.

However, since the March 28 earthquake, nobody but a few local boys has ridden the waves.

Most of the shacks dotted along the beach were wrecked by the quake.

Amid the destruction, Jafet Laia, 60, the owner of Yuni Losmen at Sorake, combed through the debris of his shake, finding only a mat and a pillow.

In the unforgiving heat of the day he unrolled the mat under a coconut tree, put the pillow on it and rested his head, staring at the white sand as it was swept up by the wind.

"There were about 20 foreign surfers staying here at the time of the quake. We all ran in time, so we were saved. We took refugee in a village uphill," Laia recalled.

He said the surfers abandoned the beach the following day.

"They won't come back here I guess. I think they must be afraid there will be more quakes," he added.

C.H.J. Gultom, the owner of Boraspati Express, a tours and travel agent specializing in extreme sports like surfing, said foreign surfers had been turned off by predictions of a string of quakes on the island.

"Of course the tourism sector will slow down. Cancellations up until the end of this month have reached 100 percent," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, he believes the surfers will come back. The temptation of perfect waves is not easy to turn down, he added.

"Moreover, surfers are different from other tourists. They are more adventurous," he said.

Gultom said that a T-shirt for surfers that reads "I've been surfing at tsunami point" has sold well.

"Besides, they love discovery. It's a glorious treasure for them if they can find a secret spot for surfing alone without having to take turns," he said.

Gultom said surfers were willing to travel far to remote places for "secret" spots.

His agency has taken many surfers to small islands around Nias to find surfing spots other than the 11 well-known points.

"I still have some reservations for May this year. They have not canceled them yet," he said.

Thomas Lafon, 25, a surfer from France, who was at Sorake when the quake hit the beach, said he would like to come back to Nias some day.

"But in the meantime, my family told me to go far away from Sumatra. I will probably continue surfing in the eastern part of Indonesia," he told the Post at Binaka Airport, where he was about to depart for Medan, 10 days after the quake.

Nias' famous surfing spots are scattered and not always easy to reach.

Some surfers set up camp on islands like Bawa and Asu. Surfers tend to stay for months in a surfing area, living modestly in shacks or even residents' houses.

They spend more money on necessities, like boats and boards.

"I get any job I can in France to save money to travel for months to surf," Lafon said.

"I've been to the Mentawai Islands and I loved it. I want to go back. Probably later," he said.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Today, just under two weeks after a huge earthquake demolished their homes, burying hundreds of men, women and children in their sleep, the people of Nias are still struggling to rebuild their lives.

As of this weekend, many bodies were still under the rubble, unrecovered due to a lack of heavy earth moving equipment. School children, those who survived the March 28 killer quake and escaped uninjured, were compelled to attend their lessons in makeshift classrooms or in the open. Food, water and fuel were hard to come by.

Though smaller in scale than the catastropic destruction that was left in the wake of the Dec. 26 tsunami, which washed whole towns and villages off the map, the human suffering that the 8.7-scale earthquake has wrought on the once-idyllic island of Nias is felt no less intensely by the island's population.

Not that help from outside has been wanting. As was the case in the Aceh tsunami disaster, help has come in by the planeload and by sea, sent over by concerned citizens overseas and elsewhere across the country as soon as news of the disaster spread. And as was true in the wake of the Dec. 26 calamity too, friendly countries near and far have been prompt to extend a helping hand to ease the suffering of the populace.

If something good has come out of this latest disaster, it must be that it has strengthened the bond of solidarity and mutual understanding — both on the national and international front — that governmental mismanagement, oppression and discrimination have for so long buried and pushed into near oblivion.

All this, however, does not detract from the disturbing impression that the various natural disasters that have occurred over the past months have proven this country's capabilities to deal with natural disasters to be grossly inadequate. As regards the Dec. 26 tsunami and more recent Nias earthquake, it is easy and certainly tempting to lay the blame for the nation's inadequacy on the sheer scope and extent of the destruction.

Nevertheless, one cannot escape the impression that neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka have shown themselves to be much more ready to act in the face of disaster. The very fact that international teams have often been first to offer help in some of the most remote of the disaster-stricken areas should give us plenty of reason to think about upgrading our own relief capabilities.

To be sure, this may not be as easy a task as it may seem. For one thing, money in sufficient amounts must be set aside to establish the organizational framework and set up the infrastructure and equipment necessary for such a task. In the face of such constraints, the government and the nation are well advised to make the best use of the international offers that have been made by governments and organizations abroad to come to our and to the region's help.

Above all, the local populace of our coastal regions must be made aware of the vital importance of keeping their protective coastal environments intact. This is particularly true given the inclination of Indonesians to dismiss or take lightly the possibility of disaster until it actually strikes. Hopefully, though, the devastation which the disasters of past weeks have wrought in the area can serve as a reminder that prevention is always better than the cure.

Friday, April 08, 2005 Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Gunung Sitoli

On a day when she was supposed to tap latex on her five-hectare rubber plantation, Ameria Hura, 32, was instead sitting and chatting with her relatives in Hiligodu village, 12 kilometers from the town of Gunung Sitoli in north Nias.

It's been eight days since the earthquake halted the economic activities there.

Tapping latex — the main source of local revenue in Nias — is her family's only way to earn a living. Some other farmers earn a living from copra and cocoa.

"We're out of money. However, tapping latex nowadays is useless because after the quake, no rubber traders come to the local market to buy our latex," she said.

Her family usually earns about Rp 60,000 (US$6.66) a day from selling 15 kilograms of latex.

Amosi Lase, who owns a rubber trading company Rejeki, said that he was not buying latex from the farmers because he still had 150 tons of latex sitting in his storehouse four kilometers from Nias island's main seaport in Gunung Sitoli.

"The quake did not ruin my storehouse. However, the seaport is now closed for trading. There is no shipping company to transport my latex to Sibolga," he said.

Meanwhile, Yanto, the owner of shipping company PT Gunung Silewi, said he had three ships and three trucks ready to transport Nias' produce to start the economic wheel, but he could not access the port, which is crowded with relief aid and panic-stricken Nias residents who wanted to leave the island.

"If the authorities can arrange administrative procedures at the sea port for trading, the trading could restart," he said.

Vincent Antonius Kurniawan, 26, who runs his family's rice supply company in Gunung Sitoli, also urged the authorities to designate space at the seaports in Sibolga and Nias for trading to fill the rice supply gap in Nias.

"My customers from several districts in Nias have contacted me to buy rice. I sold some of my stock to them from my warehouse. But the supply is quickly dwindling and it will finish in two days, meanwhile my customers are waiting for more," he said.

Vincent said that besides rice from aid, some customers who still had money preferred to buy rice rather than depending on the uncertain aid.

The young entrepreneur said his family's store in the main business area was wrecked in the quake. His parents are still recovering from some injuries in Medan.

"My family told me to rest in our house in Medan. But I remembered my workers here. They would be out of work if we leave Nias. Meanwhile, my customers here also need supplies," he said.

Vincent said that some of Nias' economic players, most of whom are Chinese-Indonesians, left Nias to recover from the trauma of the quake.

"I'm sure they will be back soon though," he said.

Meanwhile, he is struggling to restart Nias' economic wheel because once the wheel is running, the people of Nias can quickly stand on their own feet to rebuild the island.

"We cannot depend on relief aid forever," Vincent said.

Local markets in Gunung Sitoli opened three days after the quake, selling the existing supplies of salted fish, rice, instant noodles and kitchenware.

However, restarting business at the time when distribution of aid is not well channeled, security at the seaports and storehouses becomes an important issue.

"I have spoken to the local trade and industry authority here to ask them to help arrange security and transportation," he said. "Just give us a permit to assign one ship, only one ship, for trading," he said.

"But I haven't got the answer yet," he added.

Meanwhile, the Gunung Sitoli port administrator, Sudirman, said that trade and industry officials from Jakarta and Medan had come to him to talk about the possibility of opening the port for trading.

"We have talked to the government's transportation company PT ASDP here to start receiving goods," he said.

PT ASDP, which has three trading ships in Nias, is now using the ships solely for passengers and relief aid.

PT ASDP official Junjungan Siahaan in Gunung Sitoli said the trade and industry officials had talked to him about it.

"If the traders want to load latex onto the ships, they are welcome. But they have to use the aid trucks from Sibolga, which were used to transport aid here," Siahaan said.

"They cannot use their own trucks because I'm following orders to concentrate on transporting relief aid."