August 2004 104th Issue

H.M. The Queen's Birthday and National Mother's Day in Thailand
August 12

Her Majesty Queen SirikitThailand's Queen Sirikit's birthday on 12 August is a nationwide public holiday, celebrated in the whole Thai Kingdom as Mother's Day. On this day, public buildings throughout Thailand are decorated with her portrait and garlanded with flowers and many coloured lights. All around the country the Thai people, businesses and local organizations raise flags and portraits of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit.
Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand was born on 12 August 1932 as the eldest daughter of His Highness Prince Chandaburi Suranath and Mom Luang Bua Kitiyakara Snidwongse. The name "Sirikit" was given to her by King Prajadhipok or King Rama VII.
Mon Rajawongse Sirikit attended kindergarten at the Rajini School in Bangkok and later on went to the Saint Francis Xavier convent school in Bangkok. At the end of World War II, when her father was appointed as Ambassador to France, later on to Denmark and finally as full Ambassador to Great Britain, Mon Rajawongse Sirikit continued her education in those three European countries to finally complete her education at the "Riante Rive boarding school" in Lausanne Switzerland.
Thailand's Queen Sirikit is perhaps best known for her efforts in reviving many of Thailand's ancient arts and crafts. The Queen's support foundation "Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques" has expanded progressively since its establishment in 1976 to include craft shops in many of Thailand's cities and tourist areas, and 2 Thai Folk Arts and Crafts Training Centers at Chitralada Villa and at in Bangsai, Ayutthaya.
As a National Tribute to the Thai Queen's boundless contributions for the entire Thai population and especially the underprivileged in Thailand, 12 August has been declared the Nation's National Mothers Day and a public holiday.
The owners and staff at the Observer would like to join all the people of Thailand in wishing Her Majesty Queen Sirikit a very joyous happy birthday on 12 August.

TOURISM NEWS

Popular Thai destinations get poor report card
TOURISM authorities in Thailand are worried about the potential fallout from a recent report by the National Geographic magazine, which described Phuket and Chiang Mai as “ugly” destinations.
The report, based on a survey of 200 sustainable-travel specialists worldwide and which covered more than 120 destinations, ranked the two Thai destinations as among the worst.
A Tourism Development Office official admitted both destinations had suffered environmental degradation but said that all tourism destinations faced the same problem.
“We are continuing to monitor development and we have to ask ourselves whether some destinations are being overpromoted by TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand),” she said.
The official blamed lack of compliance among locals with a short-term view of tourism as the root of environmental degradation.
A TAT spokesman said the NTO was no longer responsible for development and it had to rely on other agencies to make decisions about development problems.

THAI AirAsia started daily services between Bangkok and Penang in June, bringing to five the total number of international destinations it now serves.
The launch of the new service follows the delivery of a fourth 149-seat Boeing 737-300. The outbound flight (FD720) leaves Bangkok at 10.00 hours and arrives Penang at 12.40 local time. The return flight (FD721) leaves Penang at 13.25 and arrives Bangkok 14.05.
Thai AirAsia chief executive officer, Mr Tassapon Bijleveld, said the new service was targeted at the short-break market, ethnic Chinese, first-time flyers and the expatriate market.
Thai AirAsia’s other international destinations are Singapore, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. A service to Macau were inaugurated in July.
The carrier also flies within Thailand to Phuket, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Chiang Rai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Ubon Ratchathani.

THAILAND’S outbound ticket sales are up for the months of January through May over the previous year, with the number of tickets sold increasing by 33 per cent and total sales increasing by 38 per cent.
Sales of one million tickets during the first five months of 2004 totalled nearly 14.8 billion baht (US$370 million), compared to a total of 10.7 billion baht during the same period last year.
International Air Transport Association Thailand manager, Mr Chitvee Leelasiri, said 90 per cent of sales came from the central region, one per cent from the northeast and three per cent each from the east, north and south.

SIHANOUKVILLE’S first golf course is now halfway completed and the opening of the nine-hole, par 36 O’Choue Teal Golf Resort is scheduled for mid 2005.
The 3,010m walking course with clubhouse is being developed by Malaysia’s Ariston Holdings, the operator of Sihanoukville’s recently upgraded airport and the Casino Hotel in Phnom Penh, now under construction.
Project manager, Mr Martin Standbury, said 40 rooms of a proposed 120-room hotel with restaurants would also open on the O’Choue Teal property in late 2005 and development of a second nine holes would commence once the course is operational.
“We will be targeting travellers from the Asia Pacific region and, though we have not initiated any promotions, we have already been approached by agents from Japan, Korea and Hong Kong,” he said.

RARE VISITOR TO PETCHABURI

The Indian Skimmer was first recorded in Thailand in 1954, the second visit was in January 2002 and now, last month the fascinating bird was seen in Laem Phak Bia, in Petchaburi province.
The Indian Skimmer has a peculiar habit of skimming the water surface with its lower mandible to catch it’s prey, it then rolls its head to swallow. The bird grows to a bit over 40 cm and is a favourite for bird watchers.

Lomprayah opens office in Hua Hin

THE high speed catamaran service which whizzes you from Chumpon to the islands of Koh Tao, Koh Phangan and Koh Samui, has now opened an office in Soi Kanjanomai in Hua Hin to make your booking for a trip to the islands even more convenient.
VIP Buses leave from Bangkok and stop in Hua Hin for pick ups on the way to the boat pier at Chumporn.
This is a great way to travel to the relatively unknown Koh Nangyuan, a divers paradise, or a honeymoon hideaway.
The office manager assured the Observer of the highest standards of safety and comfort for travellers.
To be sure of your seat, book in advance, particularly in the high season, as the catamaran is the way to go!

TESCO LOTUS EXPRESS COMING TO HUA HIN

The wall signs are up, construction is underway, and on August 20, Tesco Lotus Express will open its Hua Hin store.
Situated on the forecourt of the Esso Service station in central Hua Hin, the store is the first Tesco Lotus Express store to open outside Bangkok.
While many people associate Tesco Lotus with the large hypermarkets which occupy prime sites in large cities, the company has broadened its reach in order to service smaller communities with a range of formats including supermarkets, Khum Kha (Value) stores and the convenience-oriented Tesco Lotus Express stores.
By far the fastest growing of these formats is the Express store which occupies 300 sq meters of sales area, In just six months it has built 21 new stores bringing the total to 30. The popularity of the stores is such that already nearly 300,000 customers shop at a Tesco Lotus Express store every week.
According to Ian Longden, Senior Vice President for Tesco Lotus Express, the key features of the stores are their focus on price, convenience and variety of foods.
"Price is a key element of our strategy as we move beyond Bangkok. We are looking forward to offering customers in Hua Hin, the same prices our customers enjoy in Bangkok, with no padding or additional margin."
"We can do this because we have the backing of a very efficient supply chain which now supplies more than 80 stores across all formats in Thailand."
Our emphasis on convenience and variety means we offer more than traditional convenience stores," says Ian.
"Customers want to do all their top-up shopping at one location, so we have included features such as pharmacies, ATM machines, ready to eat food, mobile phones and newspapers in addition to fresh food, grocery and non-grocery products."
Variety and Choice
While many convenience stores offer a product range in the hundreds, Tesco Lotus Express draws in the strength of the company's supply chain to offer customers a choice of more than 3,000 products from all categories.
"We have everything from cucumbers to cappuccino," says Ian.
"Of course we carry snacks and beverages like every other store, but the difference with an Express store is that if you want something else, we'll probably have it, and this will save you a trip to another store."
But Ian issues a word of caution also, to the many English expatriates who have made Hua Hin their home.
"Please don't come looking for 'Chicken Kiev Ready Meals' and pork pies, we don't stock them…….yet.
"Our job is to cater to local tastes and meet local demand. To do this we source our products from Thai companies in Thailand. But to sell through us, they have to meet our international standards for hygiene and safety. So if you want international quality, come and check us out."
Fresh food with quality and safety
To begin with, there is a substantial range of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fresh meat, pork and poultry. These are delivered every day to the store from the company's state of the art distribution centre in Wang Noi, just north of Bangkok.
The food delivered to every Tesco Lotus Express store must pass the same stringent food safety and hygiene requirements that shoppers would find in the company's hypermarket. For fresh food this involves chemical testing of products for formalin, borax, pesticide residues, salicylic acid, antibiotics and beta- agonist. Fish and meat products are also randomly tested for metal traces. All testing takes place in the company's dedicated laboratory at the Distribution Centre which has been accredited by the Medical Science Department of the Ministry of Public Health for its test procedures.
In addition to meat fruit and poultry, the Express store will also offer fresh bread and buns from its bakery.
And there's more….
Even before you step inside the Tesco Lotus Express store, you will know you have arrived at a convenient destination. The ATM on the outside wall, the Water Booth and the many car parks all make the experience easy and quick.
Step inside anytime - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - and you can also access the pharmacy with its broad range of medicines and health products, .
Forget to tell your family you are on the way home ? Pick up a mobile phone from the Bliss@tel booth in the store, or step out and make a call from the phone booths immediately outside. Soothe ruffled feathers by taking home the latest DVD or VCD, consumer magazine, or newspaper as a further peace offering for being late.
Either way it's all there. And it's coming soon to Hua Hin.
Will life ever be the same again ??
For further information:
Justin Barnett 02-722-9640 ext 1523
All fresh food is delivered on a daily basis through the company's supply chain which already services more than 80 stores from Nan in the north, to Mukdaharn in the east and Had Yai in the south.

WANT TO STOP SMOKING?

Since Marlene Dietrich first lit up on screen in the Forties, smoking has been intrinsically linked to glamour.
But the stark truth is smoking now kills more women in Britain than breast cancer.
And the link between smoking and glamour has now come full circle. Supermodel Christy Turlington has revealed she is suffering from the lung disease emphysema - despite giving up cigarettes at the age of 26.
Here you will see exactly how smoking damages your health, the many different traditional and alternative ways to give up, the cost of your habit and how much you could save by stopping. We also dispel the dangerous myth that giving up smoking will see you automatically put on weight. But first, if you need any persuading that it's time to kick the habit, read the following facts:
• One cigarette knocks 11 minutes off a smoker's life.
• Every day 330 people die in the UK from smoking - the equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing and killing all its passengers.
• Half of all regular smokers will be killed by their habit.
• Smoking causes premature wrinkling, yellowing teeth and bad breath.
• More than 17,000 children under five are admitted to hospital every year because of the effects of passive smoking.
• Smokers have a higher risk of developing the chronic skin condition psoriasis.
• Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals.
• Smoking leads to increased risk of miscarriage and cot death.
• Smoking leads to 2,000 amputations a year with some smokers losing one or both legs.
• Smoking has made 120,000 young men impotent in Britain.

Ten steps to stopping
Remember smoking ruins your skin
It isn't going to be easy but remember you are not alone - 70 per cent of smokers would like to quit.
It will be an uphill battle, but there is plenty of free advice out there and with a bit of willpower you could join the growing list of survivors.
Be prepared. Don't just wake up one day and give up smoking, it is important to have thought it through in advance and prepared yourself as best as you can for the difficulties ahead.

Here are ten steps to quitting:
1• Make a date to stop and stick to it. Draw up a plan of action, including what methods are available to you.
2• Keep busy to help take your mind off cigarettes. Throw away all your ashtrays, lighters and tobacco.
3• Drink plenty of fluids - keep a glass of water or juice by you and sip it steadily. Try different flavours.
4• Get more active - walk instead of using the bus or car. Try the stairs instead of the lift. Exercise helps you relax and can boost your morale.
5• Think positive - withdrawal can be unpleasant, but it is a sign your body is recovering from the effects of tobacco. Irritability, urges to smoke and poor concentration are common - don't worry, they usually disappear after a few weeks.
6• Change your routine - try to avoid the shop you usually buy cigarettes from. Perhaps you should avoid the pub or the break room at work if there are lots of smokers around you. Try doing something totally different. Surprise yourself!
7• No excuses - don't use a crisis or even good news to be an excuse for 'just one cigarette' there is no such thing - you will soon want the next and the next....
8• Treat yourself - this is important. If you can, use the money you are saving by not smoking to buy yourself something special - big or small - that you usually would not have.
9• Be careful what you eat - try not to snack on fatty foods. If you do need to snack, try fruit, raw vegetables or sugar free gum or sweets.
10• Take one day at a time - each day without a cigarette is good news for your health, your family and your pocket.

How to give up - and stay thin
Panicked by the thought of piling on the pounds if you stop smoking? A bit of careful thought and planning will help you to stay in shape while you quit.
The good news is, not everyone gets fatter. The average increase after a year is quite small and the benefits to your health are enormous.
Evidence suggests that it is better to tackle smoking as your first priority and then the issue of weight gain if you need to. Here are some practical tips on how to avoid putting on weight while kicking the evil weed.
Snacking and nibbling
You may find you want to eat all the time when you first give up smoking. Don't panic. This urge will settle down after a few weeks.
Some people find that in the long run, it is best to eat nothing in place of smoking, so that eating between meals doesn't become a habit. Other people find that snacking helps. You will have to decide which is easiest for you.
Snacking or nibbling isn't necessarily a bad thing if you don't end up eating more calories as a result. Some people prefer to eat snacks between meals and less at mealtimes.
Ideas for nibbles
If you continue to eat normally at meals and nibble all day, then you will be in trouble. Drink plenty of water and try to avoid high calorie temptations like biscuits, crisps, chocolate and sweets.
Instead why not try fruit, sugar free chewing gum or pastilles, tea and coffee with skimmed milk, raw vegetables, low calorie canned drinks and squash and mineral water.

FIVE STAR PETS!

THE Regent Cha Am Beach Resort is to offer 11 units to pets at 500 Baht per night.
The “pet hotel” is an added facility to its human guests to accommodate the whole family! A number of clients had asked about bringing their dogs with them while they stayed at the resort, the idea was formed to add the service. A spokesperson for the hotel told the Bangkok Post that most of the guests were families with children, there was a good chance that they also owned a dog who was seen as a family member and therefore should be included in the family holidays.
The Regent is spending around 2 million Baht to renovate the rooms, which also includes air conditioning.
So by the start of the next high season you pets can stay at a top class hotel, for 500 Baht per night and you can book a room for between 2,000 and 3,500 Baht.
To safeguard the animals wellbeing the hotel has linked up with Thong Lo Animal Hospital in Bangkok to manage the pet facility and related pet care services.
It is believed to be the first five-star hotel in the country to offer this service.

Caves and Crossbows - Spelunking and Archery with the Hill Tribes
— By Antonio Graceffo —

Litee Akha, the champion marksman of Northern Thailand, set the butt of the large crossbow against his flat belly. With both hands, he expertly pulled the powerful string into place. There was an audible "click" as the trigger popped into the ready position. He removed the short bamboo arrow from his mouth, rubbed it with natural bees wax, and set it in the groove, atop the ancient weapon. Holding the bow in a straight line, away from his body, he took careful aim, and pulled the trigger. The deadly projectile flew threw the air, straight and true as any shot ever fired by William Tell, hitting the target, dead center.

We all applauded, causing him to smile brightly. His teeth, darkened by countless years of chewing beetle nut, remained invisible in the growing darkness.
The tribal crossbows were surprisingly simple. Both the stock and the bow were fashioned from the same teak wood used to make tribal muskets. The string was made from strands of rattan, which had been twisted, time and time again, making them powerful enough to bend the bow. Unlike in European archery, every aspect of tribal archery is done simply with eye-ball measurements. There seems to be little or no emphasis on exactness. In fact, any attempt to pin Litee down to an exact answer ended in frustration.

"How many times do you twist the rattan?" I asked.
"Until it is tight enough." Answered Litee.
"How many pounds draw does the bow have?"
"Yes." He answered, confusing us both.

I would estimate the draw to be somewhere around 35 pounds. "What sort of animals do you kill with these bows?"
"It is hard to kill animals, because they move too much." Admitted Litee.
"But these are great for killing people."

The only moving piece of the cross bow was the trigger mechanism, which was a kind of rocker, fashioned from highly-polished bone. It was held in place by a single peg, made of bamboo. The arrows were short, and cylindrical, as in European archery. But, the fletching was made from pounded bamboo, rather than feathers. The bamboo was split into sections, several inches long, then pounded flat, folded double, and then pounded again. One of the unique things about this type of bow was that the trough, where the arrow lay, did not run the full length of the weapon. It stopped short, three inches from the trigger. This meant that when the arrow was properly set in place, it was not touching the string. The string was already moving, picking up
speed, when it hit the arrow.

After every shot, the trough was coated with natural bees wax, taken right from a tree. The gummy wax helped to hold the arrow in place, and it lubricated the trough, giving the shot a smooth glide.

Litee went on to say that he did take small game in the forest, but that big game was actually easier, because their was more surface area to it. He could take a wild pig by shooting it several times. He also enjoyed killing large rodents. All of the hill tribes, and the Akha in particular, will eat
any animal. The jungles of Thailand are teaming with some of the most exotic and most endangered creatures in the world. But if they fall into the path of an Akha they will probably wind up in the soup.

The Akha all had slingshots, all had machetes, most had muzzle loaders, and many had cross bows. But they were so desperate for meat, that even while working in the fields they would kill an animal with whatever happened to be at hand, sticks, rocks, or farm implements. They even killed snakes with their bare hands, by grabbing the tail, and snapping them like a whip. These weren't sportsmen. These were fathers, trying to feed their families, the same as anyone punching a clock back home.

"Tomorrow I will teach you." Said Litee Akha. "But tonight, we drink whisky and eat bugs."
Learning to fire a traditional crossbow was something I had always wanted to do. Since coming to Asia, drinking the fiery, most likely poisonous, liquid that the hill tribes referred to as whisky, has become old hat. But I still couldn't stomach the fried bugs.

My host, Darren, a Brit, was married to a Thai woman, who had grown up near the tribal village. After they were married, they built this house as a weekend getaway. But it soon became a kind of community center for tribal people, who would pop over to watch TV, help in the garden, or in this case, teach archery. Some of the older boys went out into the garden to catch frogs, which would be cooked on the grill. Darren turned on the outside lights, so the village children could catch the thousands of flying insects, who hovered around the bulbs. Once caught, they were placed in a bucket of water, so that they couldn't fly away. Later, the women and children sat on the floor, picking the wings off of the bugs so that they could be fried, and eaten like popcorn.

Luckily, Darren was grilling about 90 kilos of pork, which we had bought in town, earlier in the day. When the bugs were finished, I made some excuse about having eaten bugs for lunch, and tore into the fresh killed pork, like I hadn't eaten in months.

The next morning we manly-men, Darren and I, lead by Litee Akha, armed with cross bows and machetes, set out on our hunting safari. It would have been more authentic, had we been going quietly, on our bellies, like Marines. But instead, we had a gang of about twenty village boys following us, shooting anything and everything with their sling shots. The fun thing about being in the woods with hill tribes is that they find food everywhere. The kids kept scaling trees, or hacking up roots, to share edible plants with us. Of course, the noise was deafening. I would almost rather have been in Bangkok during rush hour.
"If I were an animal I would have run away by now." I told Darren.
"Can you still get your story?" He asked.
"Yeah, just keep the kids out of the picture, and snap a photo of me shooting those water buffalo over there." I said.
"But they are domesticated farm animals." Pointed out Darren.
"The readers won't know that." I protested. "Come on, I'm trying to be Hemingway over here, and you're ruining it."
"They have bells around their necks, and some of them are tied to trees."
"Well, just try not to get the bells in the photos. And, if you can, try not to make me look so fat."
With the whole village standing two feet behind me, snickering, I readied my weapon, and tiptoed up on the water buffalos, or were they oxen? They may have been cows for all I know. Anyway, the photos were somewhat believable.
"Have you got your story, now?" Asked Darren.
"Sort of. But since we are hunting, I would feel better if we had a photo of us actually killing something."
One of the hill tribe boys pulled a badly mangle, dead frog from his bag, and laid it on the ground. To his credit, Litee Akha had much more scruples than me, refusing to shoot the dead animal. But as always, the dollar won out in the end, when I offered to buy not one, but two cross bows, if he
would let me photograph him shooting the dead frog. When he went over to retrieve his arrow, he looked like a visitor to a county fair, eating meat on a stick.
"You aren't going to print that." Urged Darren.
"Of course I am. But don't tell anyone it was staged." I said, swearing him to secrecy. I had learned to shoot a cross bow and how to catch and eat bugs. The hill tribes had learned how to fake a magazine layout. Everyone walked away a winner.
Congratulations to Antonio, who has had a story published in UK, in a book called “Travellers Tales from Heaven and Hell Part II”. Available from amazon.co.uk
You can contact the author at: antonio_graceffo@hotmail.com

ASIA TIMES online www.atimes.com

Indonesia’s AIDS battle: Just good business
By Richel Dursin

JAKARTA - "Don't let AIDS destroy our future!" reads a banner that greets visitors to the complex of tire manufacturer Gajah Tunggal in Tangerang, Banten province, an hour away from the Indonesian capital.

Around its production plants are handmade posters that read, "My friend got infected with HIV/AIDS."

Gajah Tunggal is one of six companies that received an award in May from the Indonesian government and the International Labour Organization (ILO) for implementing HIV/AIDS prevention programs in the workplace.

Other awardees include the state-owned Bank Tabungan Negara, garment producer Ricky Putra Globalindo, Standard Chartered Bank, state-owned steel producer Krakatau Steel, and state-owned housing construction company Perum Perumnas.

"We realized it is a must to educate all workers about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. We don't want to experience what is happening in Africa," said Cherie Nursalim, Gajah Tunggal steering committee member.

Nursalim had visited hospitals in Africa with her husband, a medical doctor, and was greatly affected by what she saw. Upon her return last year, she initiated the implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention policies at Gajah Tunggal, which produces and markets tires and inner tubes for motorcycles, passenger cars, and commercial and heavy-equipment vehicles.

"When we started the implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention programs from the top management, many wondered why we were doing it and asked if there were workers in our company who contracted HIV," said Catharina Widjaja, executive vice president of Gajah Tunggal.

Gajah Tunggal provides one-on-one counseling about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS, the disease it can cause, and conducts regular viewing of a documentary on living with the pandemic, called Staying Alive. The company, which employs thousands of male labourers, also teaches its workers how to use condoms as a way to prevent the transmission of the virus.

Indonesia, a mainly Muslim country of 220 million people, has a very low rate of condom use. Fewer than 10% of clients of female sex workers in the country use condoms.

"Our next step is to educate and raise the HIV/AIDS awareness of workers in our other production plants in Sumatra and the people around our factories," Widjaja said.

Gajah Tunggal, which claims to be the largest integrated tire manufacturer in Southeast Asia, employs 20,000 workers at its production plants in Sumatra.

Under a May 6 ministerial decree on HIV/AIDS prevention and control in the workplace, the government requires companies to protect workers with HIV or AIDS from discriminatory action and treatment. Some 172,000 companies, including small and medium enterprises, are scattered all over the archipelago.

The decree also bans employers from conducting HIV tests as part of recruitment requirements or as compulsory regular medical checkups.
It says that HIV tests can only be performed with the written agreement of the workers concerned. Likewise, if an HIV test is needed, the employer must provide counseling before and after the test is conducted.

Any information obtained from counseling activities, HIV tests, medical treatment and care and other related activities must be kept confidential, just like any medical records, according to the decree.

"The issuance of the decree was a significant step taken by the government to provide better treatment for people with HIV / AIDS," said ILO Jakarta director Alan Boulton.

But decrees by themselves cannot tackle the pandemic. Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea was himself pessimistic about the decree's impact since Indonesia is known for its weak law enforcement.

"Indonesia is good at making decrees but the major problem is the implementation," Nuwa Wea said. "We really have to socialize the decree to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in the workplace."

To support the decree's implementation, the government has also developed training manuals for HIV/AIDS prevention programs in companies.

For all its good intentions, however, the government decree does not explicitly state what the punishments are to companies that fail to implement the regulations for developing workplaces more sensitive to HIV and AIDS.

"The decree is toothless because there are no sanctions on firms that do not implement it," said Siprianus Kambu, an employee at a flour company. Still, Kambu added that companies that violate the decree would face social sanctions from labour unions.

"In implementing the decree, what is more important is preventive action rather than repressive action," said Zulmiar Yanri, director of occupational health and safety at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

The decree might be of some help to people like Yanri, an employee who was forced to resign last year after her colleagues filed a petition with the company's director and said they did not want to work with a person who had tested positive for HIV.

Some employers also say better HIV/AIDS prevention can only be good for business.

"The issuance of the decree is beneficial to us because it would minimize our financial costs. Just imagine, local companies pay around Rp50 million [nearly US$5,900] for every worker that gets hospitalized," said Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association.

Other consequences of AIDS include increased expenditures on hiring and training replacements, early payout of retirement funds and decreased productivity due to high rates of absenteeism and loss of experienced personnel.

"The virus has a clear track record of sabotaging national economies and company profits," said Richard Howard, private-sector specialist at Family Health International, an organization that runs prevention and care programs called Aksi Stop AIDS (Stop AIDS Action).

According to Howard, HIV prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa range between 10% and 30% and have caused gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates to drop sharply.

"The business community is uniquely positioned to play an important role in reducing HIV transmission in the country," Howard said.

At the same time, Wanandi said: "We have to ask assistance from experts on HIV/AIDS to educate workers. Businessmen are not experts on this issue and they usually don't care about the threat of HIV/AIDS."

But with one in four new HIV cases being reported from Asia, the sprawling continent is on the verge of being felled by an AIDS epidemic that would dwarf the devastation wrought by the disease in Africa, experts have warned.

According to a report by the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, six of Indonesia's 31 provinces "are badly affected" by the virus.

Indonesia, which has a large base of mobile workers in resource-based, shipping and transportation industries, has some 90,000-130,000 people with HIV, 75% of whom are males. Of those with HIV, 85% are in their prime working years, aged 20-40. Most are from Jakarta, Papua, East Java, Riau and Bali.

Industries that hire men who work away from home for either long or short periods face the greatest risks of HIV because these "mobile men" often have extra time and money to engage in commercial sex for entertainment and to relieve stress, said Howard.

HIV infection rates among female sex workers, who often engage in high-risk behaviour, range from 1-8%.

In addition, the rate of injecting drug use is increasing among males between the ages of 15 and 22. About 200,000 young men use heroin on a regular basis, 94% of whom share dirty needles because they cannot purchase clean syringes in the open market and are scared of being arrested for carrying unused syringes.

Logging on to terror.com
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - While militant and terrorist groups have been using the Internet for almost a decade, its growing popularity as a meeting place for terrorist groups over the past few years has made cyberspace a key battleground in the "war on terror". Far from successful at "smoking out terrorists" from their hideouts in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan, counter-terrorism strategists are finding the task of tracking terrorists and their activities in cyberspace even more daunting.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of militant groups using the Internet for their activities. In 1998, about half of the 30 militant groups that were labelled terrorist organizations by the US maintained websites. By 2000, almost all terrorist groups had established their presence on the web. According to Gabriel Weimann, senior fellow at the Washington-based United States Institute for Peace (USIP) and professor at the Haifa University in Israel, the number of terrorist-run websites has increased by 571% over the past seven years.

The Internet has become the terrorists' preferred choice of communication for the same reasons it is popular among people in general: it is quick, inexpensive and easily accessible. What makes it particularly attractive to terrorists is that it gives access to huge audiences spread across the world, provides anonymity and is hard to police or regulate.

Not only have the number of terrorist websites increased, but also the uses to which terrorists put the Internet have diversified. Its use as a propaganda tool is perhaps the most overt. Terrorist websites typically outline the nature of the organization's cause and justifications for the use of violence. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) website, for instance, carries accounts of the LTTE's "freedom struggle", the legality of its demand for an independent Tamil Eelam and the legitimacy of its armed struggle. The website carries interviews given by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran and his speech on "Heroes Day". It also carries press releases that provide the media with its take on events in Sri Lanka.

But use of the Internet as a propaganda tool is just the tip of the iceberg. Terrorists are using the Internet as a weapon in psychological warfare, to raise funds, recruit, incite violence and provide training. They also use it to plan, network and coordinate attacks. Thomas Hegghammer, who researches Islamist websites at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, says that "in a sense, [the Internet has] replaced Afghanistan as a meeting place".
Groups with links to al-Qaeda used the Internet as a weapon in psychological warfare in the recent spate of kidnappings and beheadings that they carried out. Gruesome videos of the killing of Daniel Pearl and the beheadings of Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, Kim Sun-il and others were posted on the Internet. By doing this, the terrorists were able to reach out to a global audience, and in the process amplify many times over the terror generated by a single terrorist incident.

The "heroism" of the fighters, their "sacrifices" and their "martyrdom" are recurrent themes on which militant websites focus. These are aimed at motivating others to join the cause and also to encourage donations. It is said that while websites play an important role in motivating youngsters to contribute in one way or another to the cause, they stop short of actually recruiting through the web.

Women and children are targeted by these websites, too. Mothers are exhorted to send their sons to battlefields. One website - Princess Taliban - details the many ways women can help the jihad cause, including reading the proper bedtime stories to prepare their children for a future as combatants.

Several websites incite violence and provide know-how, even online training in terror tactics. In an interview with ABC's Lateline reporter Tony Jones, former Reuters journalist Paul Eedle, who is studying radical Islamic websites, compared the Internet with a training camp. He drew attention to two fortnightly magazines, one general political and the other specifically military, being developed by al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Explaining the significance of these online training magazines to al-Qaeda, Eedle pointed out: "They have to replace their physical bases in Afghanistan somehow and so long as there is a small number of highly trained people to lead groups, then these detailed manuals of writing how to write recipes for explosives are all crucial."
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has been providing online training in bomb-making for several years. The module consists of 14 lessons, including the production of a belt filled with explosives used often by suicide bombers. Those who show lack of commitment by missing a class are not allowed to continue with the course.

"The Terrorist's Handbook", "The Anarchist Cookbook" and the "Mujahideen Poisons Handbook", which provide detailed instructions on how to construct bombs and concoct homemade poisons, are posted on several militant websites.

Another manual distributed through the Internet is "The Encyclopedia of Jihad". Prepared by al-Qaeda, it provides detailed instructions on how to establish an underground organization and execute attacks. A recent edition of the al-Qaeda's publication al-Battar - or "The Sword" - provides a comprehensive guide to kidnapping, suggested hostage-taking methods, potential targets, negotiating tactics and directions on how to videotape the decapitation of victims and post the video on the web. Incidentally, this online information was posted ahead of the recent spate of kidnappings and beheadings in West Asia.
Speaking at the New American Foundation in Washington last week, Weimann pointed out that the Hezbollah site provides links to downloadable games. "These games are training children to play the role of terrorists, to be suicide bombers and to actually kill political leaders," Weimann said.

The Internet has been described as a virtual Afghanistan, where terrorists can meet, discuss and plan their operations. Terrorists have been hiding pictures and maps of targets in sports chat rooms, on pornographic bulletin boards and on web sites. Encrypted messages are being sent in pictures on websites - a practice known as steganography - containing instructions for terrorist attacks.

In a USIP-published report "How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet", Weimann points out that al-Qaeda used the Internet extensively while planning and coordinating the September 11 attacks. Thousands of encrypted messages were posted in a password-protected area of a website. By accessing the Internet in public places and sending messages via public e-mail the operatives preserved their anonymity. He also describes how Hamas militants and sympathizers "use chat rooms to plan operations and operatives exchange e-mail to coordinate actions across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Israel". Instructions in the form of maps, photographs, directions and technical details of how to use explosives are often disguised by means of steganography, which involves hiding messages inside graphic files.

Sometimes, however, instructions are delivered concealed in only the simplest of codes. Mohammed Atta's final message to the other 18 terrorists who carried out the attacks of September is reported to have read: "The semester begins in three more weeks. We've obtained 19 confirmations for studies in the faculty of law, the faculty of urban planning, the faculty of fine arts, and the faculty of engineering." (The reference to the various faculties was apparently the code for the buildings targeted in the attacks.)

But experts like Hegghammer reject the view that militants use the Internet to plan and coordinate attacks. He believes that the sort of planning required for attacks is done in secret "very, very carefully". The Internet, he argues, is used mainly to share ideas and spread propaganda.

While it is the use of the Internet by Islamic militants that has grabbed the attention of intelligence agencies and counter-terrorism officials over the past several years, the Internet is being used by an array of groups with very different ideologies, including American white supremacist and militia groups, anarchists and groups with secessionist ambitions like the self-proclaimed "Republic of Texas". They, too, incite violence and provide input on bomb-making.

Fighting a losing battle Counterterrorism experts find themselves in the deep end in their "war on terror" in cyberspace. The rapid pace at which information technology is advancing makes it hard to fight terrorists. Several Islamist militant groups might be using medieval methods of violence, such as beheading, but the skill with which they are using the Internet indicates that their feet are firmly placed in the 21st century.

Shutting down websites does not help, as they re-emerge quickly on different servers. It is difficult to catch moving targets. Weimann describes terrorism on the Internet as "a very dynamic phenomenon: websites suddenly emerge, frequently modify their formats, and then swiftly disappear - or, in many cases, seem to disappear by changing their online address but retaining much the same content".

Not only is the task of intercepting encrypted messages and images on the Internet's estimated 28 billion images and 2 billion websites a tough one, but also interpreting it is difficult as it is impossible to read an encrypted message without cracking the encryption's code. Cracking a code is time-consuming. However, a highly encrypted message crossing the net can sometimes grab the attention of security sleuths who are then likely to crack it. This has prompted several militants to opt for low-tech, text only messages, as these are unlikely to catch attention.
Analysts are suggesting that instead of engaging in a futile effort of closing down websites, counter-terrorism strategists should simply listen to what is being discussed in cyberspace - in the chat rooms and discussion rooms. The discussion rooms provide intelligence on attacks, but more importantly, on how ideology and opinion is shaping in the larger Muslim community. Hegghammer argues: "That is where you really get the early signs of the ideological developments, which are later going to affect us, or might affect us, physically."

Governments and counter-terrorism experts are doing their best to keep up with the terrorists. But barring major technological advances, the cat and mouse game going on in cyberspace is likely to continue, with the mouse remaining elusive.

(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for information on our sales and syndication policies.)

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