Mass mutiny hits E Timor army

Mark Dodd

More than 400 mutinous East Timorese soldiers -- a quarter of the country's army -- will be dismissed for deserting after protesting over poor conditions and selective promotions.

The mass sacking is a great blow to the strength of East Timor's fledgling defence force and poses a potential security risk.

At large is a volatile, undisciplined group with military training who were previously seasoned guerilla fighters against the Indonesian occupiers.

Their dismissal is also an embarrassment for Canberra because most of the rebel troops received training from the Australian Defence Force as part of the Howard Government's $26million defence co-operation program with East Timor.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson last night declined to comment, with a spokesman saying the minister needed more information.

But a Defence Department spokesman told The Australian: "The situation has disrupted Australia's training and infrastructure development activities at Metinaro base (west of the capital Dili).

"We have moved ADF advisers normally based at the Metinaro facility to Dili, until the situation is further resolved."

East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has threatened further punishment for the mutineers, including civil and military justice. Dr Alkatiri said many were former resistance fighters "not used to the discipline of a regular military force".

Most of the 400 are former Falintil guerilla veterans of the bloody 24-year struggle for independence against Indonesia.

Ambiguity remained yesterday over the timing of the dismissals. According to one senior Western military source, the rebel troops had been given until tomorrow to end their "strike", while other reports suggested the sackings had already occurred.

East Timor's army commander, Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak, was quoted in one of Dili's mainstream newspapers, Suara Timor Lefte, as having "thanked" the rebels for their service and considered them dismissed for refusing to meet a deadline to return to base.

The standoff began on February 8 when the soldiers deserted their barracks and arrived in Dili to present a petition to their commander-in-chief, President Xanana Gusmao, asking for their complaints to be investigated.

Mr Gusmao accepted the petition and ordered the troops to return to base. The order was refused despite the rebels winning a government inquiry into their grievances.

East Timor human rights group Yayasan-HAK said the army lacked a "transparent" code of military conduct, and disciplinary problems within the ranks of the 1500-strong force were increasingly widespread.

"We found there was no regulation or disciplinary code and no regulations concerning promotion," Yayasan-HAK spokesman Jose Oliveira said.

The ADF has played a key role in training the But a Defence Department spokesman told The Australian: "The situation has disrupted Australia's training and infrastructure development activities at Metinaro base (west of the capital Dili).

"We have moved ADF advisers normally based at the Metinaro facility to Dili, until the situation is further resolved."

The ADF has played a key role in training the F-FDTL.

Carmakers roll out fuel-efficient vehicles

The Indonesian automotive industry entered a new era when Japanese carmaker PT Honda Prospect Motor (HPM) presented a Honda Civic Hybrid for testing purposes to the government.
The car was presented by PT HPM president director Kenji Otaka on Feb. 10 to Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) chairman Kusmayanto Kadiman, who is also the state minister of research and technology.

A hybrid vehicle is usually defined as a car using two engines: a conventional internal combustion engine for high-speed drive and an electric motor used at lower speeds.

While it is more expensive than a regular car -- 15 to 40 percent more expensive -- hybrid vehicles have advantages: cleaner and more fuel-efficient as the electric engine reduces the internal combustion engine's load at certain conditions.

Currently, carmakers worldwide are working on how to create cars that are cleaner as well as more fuel-efficient given increasing crude oil and fuel prices. Not to mention that fossil fuels are nonrenewable energy and supply will eventually become scarcer.

An even more expensive endeavor in ensuring a cleaner vehicle is fuel cell technology using hydrogen as a fuel. It emits nothing more than water vapor.

The principle of fuel cells is similar to ordinary batteries but with the ability to replenish the stored energy by an external supply of fuels: hydrogen on the anode side and oxygen on the cathode side.

Most fuel cell vehicles are still in the trial stage, although some are undergoing public trials.
German carmaker BMW tested fuel cell technology with its BMW 750hL saloon in 2000 and Mini compact car in 2001. The BMW 750hL was claimed to be the first production-based car using fuel cells.

Another German carmaker, Mercedes-Benz, has a fleet of A Class F-Cell compact sedans being tested in Europe, Japan and Singapore. It also has 30 Citaro F-Cell buses in 10 European cities and three in Perth, Australia. It also has tested its Sprinter van using fuel cells.

Meanwhile, American carmaker General Motors delivered last April a Chevrolet Silverado truck to the U.S. Army for evaluation, which will end in July.

While hybrid and fuel cell technologies are no doubt for the distant future in Indonesia - if not improbably -- there are still plenty of options for alternative fuel that are more down to earth for this nation.

Using an alternative fuel, we can still use regular internal combustion engines with no or little modification and produce cleaner emissions.

Among the popular alternative fuels, perhaps compressed natural gas (CNG) is the most widely used. Vehicles using CNG are called natural gas vehicles.

The Jakarta administration, for example, is planning to use more buses that run on CNG for its second and third busway corridors.

In Bangkok, all taxis run on gas, although the gas containers do reduce trunk space. In addition to taxis, most tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxis similar to Jakarta's bajaj) have also been converted to use CNG.

Compressed natural gas usually takes the form of methane and may also contain ethane, propane and butane in varying amounts. It is the cleanest form of all fossil fuel having the highest energy:carbon ratio among all fossil fuel and produces less carbon dioxide per unit of energy.

In Indonesia, the problem is that there are too few CNG filling stations. Even in Jakarta they are scarce.

This makes it less feasible for carmakers to market vehicles that run on CNG. No driver is willing to queue too long to fill up the tank even if the price is lower than for gasoline. It is quite ironic as Indonesia has a huge untapped reserve of natural gas and is among the world's top suppliers of natural gas.

Recently, the government announced that it would decrease exports of natural gas and instead focus on domestic supply to reduce dependency on oil. Let's hope the policy will also mean the provision of more CNG for the transportation sector.

Despite being the cleanest fossil fuel, natural gas resources will someday be exhausted also as it is nonrenewable.

That's why various government agencies as well as universities and private companies are banking on biofuel.

In general, biofuel can be termed as any fuel that comes from biomass -- or living organisms or their metabolic byproducts. It can come from plants or cow manure, for example.

It comes in the form of bioalcohol for engines running on gasoline and biodiesel for engines running on diesel fuel. Bioalcohol is sometimes also called gasohol, which is a short form of gasoline alcohol.

The most common is a mixture of 10 percent biofuel to 90 percent fossil fuel. Hence the term E-10 and B-10 for bioalcohol and biodiesel respectively.

It is, however, possible to increase the mixture of biofuel to 85 percent or even to use pure biofuel.

These mixtures are claimed to produce cleaner emissions than those running on pure gasoline or diesel fuels.

Bioalcohol -- in the ethanol form -- can come from cassava, corn, sugarcane or other plants rich in sugar or starch.

Brazil is the largest producer and user of bioethanol made from sugarcane. The country introduced it to the public in the 1980s and has managed to reduce its fuel imports. Most new cars in Brazil can run on both gasoline and bioalcohol.

Fuel stations in Thailand also sell E-10 gasohol together with regular gasoline, although it has yet to reach the scale of Brazil.

As for biodiesel, it can come from plants such as oil palm, jarak (castor seeds) or rapeseed. With some modification, engines can even run on vegetable oil or cooking oil and used cooking oil.

In Indonesia, some public tests have been undertaken for biofuel usage. Some private companies and individuals have also use biodiesel in their vehicles. The use of bioalcohol, however, is still limited.

Let's see whether biofuels will become mainstream fuels here anytime soon.

Published on The Jakarta Post on Sunday, February 19, 2006

How does it feel to be 33?

Am I old? Am I young? It can be half empty or half full. Some say I got one year more while others say I got one year less. Suppose that I got 66 years in my life time, this year is already the middle of my life. I have 33 years more to go while last year I had 34 years to go.

Whatever.

And don't expect that I have party as I was stuck in the office uploading the website. What a way to celebrate my birthday.

Well, whether it is one year more or one year less, still plenty of things to do.

Web counter ready to record visitors

This is just a small announcement that I have put web counter from Free Counter Plus to my Blogspot blogs. The counter is free but it carries a link to an advertiser. You can generate it randomly. Well, there's no such thing as a free lunch in this cruel world. :P

The good thing about this counter is that it has a (basic) site statistics. While the design is basic, it comes in several color schemes to match your blog design.

So, for those who have not use this webcounter, have a try.