Poor OrangUtans

Political turmoil in Thailand has postponed the planned repatriation of 46 smuggled orangutans to their habitat in Indonesia, but the Indonesian government expressed hope Thursday they will be able to return home within one or two weeks.
"The process of the repatriation is not easy...we have to delay the plan because of political uncertainties" in Thailand, Adi Susmiyanto, director of conservation and biodiversity at the Forestry Ministry, told a press conference.

The great apes, which were smuggled to Thailand a few years ago from Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo Island, had been expected to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday to a gala welcome by first lady Ani Yudhoyono.

"The Indonesian government has lost contact with our partners in the Thai government who were decision-makers," Susmiyanto said.

The Thai military staged a coup Tuesday, ousting Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra while he was visiting New York to attend the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Susmiyanto said he hopes the orangutans will be repatriated within two weeks after an interim government is established in Thailand as announced by Thai Army Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, leader of the Council of Administrative Reform that carried out the coup.
The long-haired apes are to be sent to the Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Center in Central Kalimantan where they are to receive help in making the transition to life in the wild before actually being released in the jungle.

DNA tests in Thailand confirmed that 48 orangutans at Pratubacahang Center private zoo in Bangkok were members of the Borneo species. The other species is found on Sumatra Island.

Jakarta has donated seven of the 48 orangutans who suffer from hepatitis B to the Thai government for research.

The Thai government was also to give back another five orangutans seized from Chiangmai Night Safari, bringing the number of orangutans to be repatriated to Indonesia to 46.

The population of orangutans on Borneo is declining due to unchecked logging and poaching. The Forestry Ministry estimates the number of orangutans in Kalimantan at 35,000.

In July, Indonesia got back two orangutans that had been smuggled to Vietnam and six from Malaysia. Talks with Malaysia are now under way on five other smuggled orangutans and one with Saudi Arabia.

According to the Jakarta-based international nongovernmental organization Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, over the last three years a total of 94 orangutans have been confiscated in Thailand, of which 41 have disappeared or died.

The foundation has posted a story on its website alleging that the five orangutans in Chiangmai have been exploited as photo props, making direct contact with hundreds of visitors daily and being exposed to disease and extreme stress.

Susmiyanto said the orangutans are usually smuggled when they are still babies, taken from their mothers who are killed. They are carried in wooden fishing boats, mostly to Cambodia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.