JAKARTA (AP)--Indonesia's vice president on Thursday called on local authorities to follow poultry culling orders in bird flu-infected areas and vowed to compensate farmers.
"If the central government says stamp it out, then that means ... stamp it out," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital Jakarta.
Bird flu has killed at least 133 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization, with Indonesia and Vietnam topping the toll with 42 deaths each.
Indonesia has been criticized by some for not carrying out widespread culling, something the government has repeatedly said it could not afford to do.
Kalla said sometimes government orders to slaughter birds in infected areas are simply ignored by local authorities. "This is dangerous to all of us," he said.