Indonesia halts U.S. naval lab's activities

[Gert van der Hoek]

Indonesia halts U.S. naval lab's activities

25 Sep 2008 08:01:39 GMT

Source: Reuters

JAKARTA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Indonesia has halted the activities of a U.S. naval medical lab in Jakarta following a dispute over the terms of a contract, the health minister said on Thursday.

The U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2 has been key to efforts to track bird flu in Indonesia, the country with the most human deaths from the H5N1 virus.

But a memorandum of understanding allowing the lab to operate in Jakarta expired two years ago and was not renewed as a dispute arose over Indonesia's sharing of samples of H5N1 with the rest of the world.

"They are not allowed to do any activities anymore," Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari told Reuters by phone. "The term is suspension, but there are no activities at all now."

Earlier in April, she said the lab was not very beneficial to Indonesia because it refused to share all its findings with the host country.

Retno Marsudi, Indonesian directorate general for America and Europe relations, said the contract with Washington to operate the lab had not been terminated.

A U.S. embassy spokesman in Jakarta declined to comment.

Indonesia ordered hospitals and labs in the country to stop supplying bird flu samples to the American lab early this year and now only reports bird flu cases in humans to public every six months, a move some scientists say could lead to delays in containing outbreaks of the disease.

Jakarta has also refused to share bird flu samples, saying it wants guarantees from richer nations and drugmakers that poor countries would get access to affordable vaccines developed from their samples.

International health experts say it is vital to have access to samples of the constantly mutating H5N1 virus, which they fear could change into a form easily transmissible among humans and sweep the world in months, killing millions of people.

Indonesia has suffered 112 casualties from the virus.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/JAK297014.htm

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia halts U.S. naval lab's activities

RI shuts down U.S. medical laboratory

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit number 2 (Namru-2) laboratory in Jakarta will be temporarily shut down because it offers "little benefit" to Indonesia, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Thursday.

"They are not allowed to conduct any activities anymore. The term is suspension, but there are no activities at all now," she was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Siti, Indonesia's senior-most medical official, said she staunchly opposed the medical lab and called for its closure, arguing that it did not benefit national interests and even compromised national security.

Siti said the lab refused to share all of its findings with the host country.

Indonesia and the U.S. ceased negotiations on the future of the lab in June after officials and legislators proved unable to agree whether the lab, active since 1970, should continue its operations in Indonesia.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry said the temporary closure of the lab was not contentious as negotiations between the two sides were ongoing.

"As long as we are still negotiating a new umbrella agreement for Namru, the termination of activities is no problem," Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post by phone from New York.

The halt in activities does not mean the lab will be closed permanently as the contract with Washington to operate the lab has not yet terminated, another Indonesian Foreign Ministry official said.

"We still have a contract. Although it was terminated in 2000, then President Abdurahman Wahid revived it," ministry director general for relations with America and Europe Retno P. Marsudi said.

The U.S. and Indonesia have yet to resume talks since the June negotiations breakdown, she said.

The negotiations were complicated by an international dispute over how to share crucial bird flu samples.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt has said the quarrel over Indonesia's refusal to share its samples of the H5N1 avian influenza virus with the rest of the world has spilled into the Namru talks.

Siti earlier forbid samples of the virus to be shipped outside of Indonesia, citing that rich nations and pharmaceutical companies would benefit by using the samples to develop vaccines that poor countries would not be able to afford.

Many international observers have said Namru is central to Indonesia's early efforts to track mutations of H5N1, which is feared may become transmissible among humans with the potential for it to sweep the world in months and kill millions.

Indonesia has suffered 112 deaths from the virus, making it the country with the highest death toll.

http://old.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20080926.A04&irec=3

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

Re: Indonesia halts U.S. naval lab's activities

Seems to be the next step in the negotiations.