LOCALS AFFECTED BY SLICK IN TIMOR SEA

       Residents living along the coast of West Timor in East Nusa Tenggara are worried about the impacts of an oil spill in the Timor Sea originating from a leaking well head in Australia.
       A Kolbano resident, Daniel Missa, said dozens of residents had experienced nausea and skin irritation after eating dead fish found along the beach.
       "Residents didn't know why the fish were dead, so they picked them up and ate them. They apparently suffered from itchiness, felt nauseous and vomited," said Daniel.
       A fisherman in Oesapa subdistrict in Kupang, Ridwan, 34, who had just returned from fishing in the Timor Sea on Monday, said the sea was filled with a crude oil slick.
       "The surface of the sea is covered by masses of crude oil resembling sand," said Ridwan.
       A large part of the slick is in Indonesian waters, he said, but so far none of the authorities have taken responsitility for cleaning the oil spill.
       "Eight of my colleagues and I saw with our own eyes the dead fish floating on surface at a distance of around 300 kilometres, emitting a foul smell," he said.
       East Nusa Tenggara Governor Frans Leburaya has urged the Australian government and the oil company operating the Montara field - PTT Exploration and Production, Thailand's only publicly traded oil exploration company - to accept responsibility for the incident.
       The Montara oil field exploded on August 21. The oil spill, reaching 500,000 litres per day, is moving close to Timor Island, located only 70 nautical miles from the oil field.
       "The oil slick is expected to arrive in Kolbano, a densely populated area in South Central Timor regency, by the second week of October," said West Timor Care Foundation director Ferdi Tanoni at a press conference in the provincial capital of Kupang on Wednesday.
       "The oil spil took place a month ago but neither countries have taken any concrete steps to overcome the problem. East Nusa Tenggara residents are the most at risk, and environmental destruction has further worsened," he said.
       Dozens of fishermen working around Pasir Island and waters off Timor had returned empty-handed, he added.