YPTB Sends A Petition To Australia's Prime Minister

Kupang, E Nusa Tenggara, Nov 11(Antara) - The West Timor Concern Foundation (YPTB) said it has sent a petition to the new Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott calling for immediate investigation into cases of Montana refinery oil spill in Timor Sea polluting Indonesian waters in East Nusatenggara. Explosion of the oil refinery in August 2009, resulted in heavy damage to Indonesia especially East Nusatenggara, chairman of the foundation Ferdi Tanoni said here on Thursday. "We sent the petition on humanity reason as the oil spill has caused tens of thousands of fishermen and seaweed growers in the southern coastal areas of islands in East Nusatenggara lost livelihood," Ferdi said. The foundation has won support from a number of important elements in Australia such as the Australian Lawyers` Alliance(ALA), he said. ALA has taken the initiative and sent a number of people to Kupang and the Island of Rote to carry out its own investigations of the damage caused by the oil spill and find evidence of the extend of the damage suffered by the local fishermen and seaweed farmers. Hundreds of thousands of liters of oil were spilled into the sea over a period of 74 days after the explosion of the Montara oil refinery in the Atlas block heavily polluted the East Nusatenggara waters. Attempts by the Australian government and the refinery owner PTTEP Australasia by spraying hundreds of thousands of liters of chemical to bring the oil down to the seabed failed. "On the contrary the poisonous chemicals caused worse pollution," Ferdi said. The chemical spread widely to Indonesian waters polluting local fishing grounds and thousands of hectares of seaweed farms the main livelihood of the coastal people, he said. "In only two weeks after the oil refinery explosion thousands of fishes including sharks and dolphins died and floundering in that area and thousands of hectares of seaweed were damaged," he said. Twelves people were reported dead and a number of others suffered chronic disease after consuming fishes believed to have been contaminated by the poisonous chemical, he added. He said YPTB thinks it necessary to report the tragedy to the prime minister hoping that the new Australian government asked PTTEP Australasia to finance investigation and consider compensation.