Indonesian Official Suggests U.S., Others Developing Biological Weapons From Bird Flu Virus

Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has been ordered to stop sales of a new book she authored that suggests the United States and the World Health Organization might be developing biological weapons from bird flu samples collected in developing nations, the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 28, 2005).

Supari told a WHO official that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had ordered the recall.

“She told me the president had made her take it off the market,” said David Heymann, the WHO’s assistant director general for health security (Mark Forbes, Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 21).

The book, entitled It Is Time for the World to Change! God’s Hand Behind Bird Flu Virus, questions if the bird flu samples were being used to develop vaccines or to create new biological weapons, BBC Monitoring reported (BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific, Feb. 21).

“Whether they use it to make vaccine or develop chemical weapons would depend on the need and interest of the U.S. government,” Supari told the Herald.  She has refused to share virus samples collected in Indonesia, the Herald reported.

U.S. officials denied any biological weapon development and also denied Supari’s claim that Los Alamos National Laboratory possessed any bird flu samples.

Heymann also said her allegation lacked plausibility.

“I don’t understand why they would take this virus to make a biological weapon; it doesn’t transmit from human to human,” he said.  “Indonesia needs to spend more time on dealing with infections with chickens and stopping humans from being infected.”

“They need to be sharing the virus with the world community so we can do the proper risk analysis to help attack the problem,” he added (Forbes, Sydney Morning Herald).

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