Open letter to the President of Republic of Indonesia

An Open Letter to the President of the Republic of Indonesia regarding the repatriation of Indonesian orangutans from Thailand:

Your Excellency Mr President Bambang Yudhoyono,

The Indonesian government’s diplomatic efforts, lobbying and the NGOs’ long hard campaigns demanding the repatriation of hundreds of illegally exported Indonesian orangutans to Safari World in Thailand have finally borne a positive result. On 23rd September 2006, 41 orangutans previously exploited for “kick-boxing” shows at the Thai Safari World are going to be returned to Indonesia.

According to the plan, the orangutans are to be transported back to Indonesia by a Hercules aircraft and officially met upon arrival by the First Lady, Madam Kristiani Yudhoyono, together with the team from the Department of Forestry and a commercial company, Messrs Taman Safari Indonesia (TSI).

In respect of the repatriation of the above Indonesian orangutans, we, six Indonesian NGOs consisting of ProFauna Indonesia, Animal Advocacy Institute (LASA), Indonesian Society for Animal Welfare (ISAW), BEBSIC Kalimantan Timur, Aliansi untuk Satwa Indonesia (AuSI) and Forum for Forest and Animals (FORESTA) wish to state the following:

1. We welcome the repatriation of 41 Indonesian orangutans to be cared for at the Orangutan Reintroduction Centre in Kalimantan with the sole objective of returning them to the wild following their rehabilitation. There are more than sufficient trained human resources and facilities provided at the Orangutan Reintroduction Centre in Kalimantan and the PPSs (Wildlife Rescue Centres) to care for all of the orangutans that will be arriving.

2. We strongly object to the involvement of Taman Safari Indonesia (TSI) in this process due to the fact that TSI hold their own orangutan “shows”, exploiting the orangutans for commercial purposes in a manner similar to the exploitation received by the very orangutans being returned from Safari World in Thailand. Taman Safari Indonesia has never been involved with our efforts in campaigning and organizing the return of these apes at any stage in the process and we see no reason why they are now involved in the final stage of the repatriation of the orangutans.

3. On 24th July 2006, two orangutans illegally exported and confiscated in Vietnam were repatriated to Indonesia. At that time these orangutans were temporarily entrusted to the care of Taman Safari Indonesia for quarantine purposes and the government at the time promised that the two orangutans would be sent to the orangutan re-introduction centre. However, to date these orangutans are still being kept at TSI. We ask that the Department of Forestry immediately send these two orangutans to the re-introduction centre so that they can receive a rehabilitation program as soon as possible, in order to adapt them to life in the wild again.

4. We hope that the Kalimantan Orangutan Reintroduction Centre which has been entrusted with the care of the orangutans from Thailand will provide information to the general public on their condition and progress during their rehabilitation with the purpose of ensuring transparency on their well being.

Yours sincerely,

On behalf of the coalition of NGOs for orangutans:

• Asep Rahmat Purnama (Chairman of ProFauna Indonesia)
Email: profauna@profauna.or.id

• Irma Hermawati, SH (Director of LASA)
Email: lasa@indo.net.id

ProFauna UK Representative
P.O. B ox 264
Northwood
Middlesex
HA6 9AP
UK

Not for profit - Indonesian wildlife conservation society

This release was published on openPR.