Banished to a Dusty Cliff

For as far as the eye can see, there is only rubble and thick underbrush. All the houses lie in ruins. Only a mosque and a school still stand, though the roofs have collapsed. On that afternoon in early October, Gili Sunut, a small island off Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, appeared completely deserted.

"There used to be a heavily populated fishing community here," said Maandi, a fisherman from Sekaroh village who brought Tempo to the island. Four years ago, the 137 fishermen and their families who lived on this 155-hectare island were relocated. A foreign capital investment company from Singapore, Ocean Blue Republik Indonesia, said it had plans to build a world-class resort.