Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Rendi A. Witular and Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Military and police personnel along with officials from the ministries
of forestry and immigration are all involved in the lucrative business
of illegal logging in Papua, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has
proclaimed.
His statement, quoted by Ministry of Forestry MS Kaban on Tuesday, drew
immediate signals of apparent cooperation from the mentioned
institutions. Operations assistant to the Indonesian Military (TNI)
chief Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, said the TNI is investigating whether
their involvement was limited to their personnel, or whether the
institution itself was involved.
Minister Kaban said, "According to the President, personnel of the
eastern Navy, the police in Papua, the Trikora Regional Military
Command (based in Papua provincial capital of Jayapura), local offices
of the ministries of forestry and immigration in Papua, all have
indications of being involved in illegal logging in Papua." He had
earlier attended an unscheduled Cabinet meeting on illegal logging.
The meeting followed on last week's revelations by the London-based
Environmental Investigation Agency and the Indonesian group Telapak.
It's report accused the TNI and other officials of smuggling 300,000
cubic meters of timber per month from Indonesia (mostly Papua) to
China, with a value of more than US$1 billion.
Kaban on Tuesday named some of the business people allegedly involved,
with their main operations taking place in Papua, Jambi, East
Kalimantan, Dumai in Riau and North Sumatra -- but he did not name any
high ranking officials or military and police officers.
"There's no way the TNI is not involved. The ship carrying the illegal
timber was guarded by warships," he said. The President has instructed
that an "integrated crackdown" take place in the next two weeks, Kaban
said, against all suspected parties, which would cost some Rp 8 billion
(about $860,000).
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said apart from cooperating in
the crackdown, his office would conduct "shock therapy" against
personnel suspected of involvement in the crime. A former police chief
of Sorong regency in Papua and five of his subordinates are on trial
for alleged illegal logging in the province. Also on Tuesday deputy
chief of detectives at the National Police Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida
said police are seeking funding of Rp 48 billion a year in order to
conduct six operations per annum, or Rp 8 billion per operation,
against illegal logging.
He said that with the Rp 8 billion spent in an earlier operation,
police had managed to recover around Rp 1.5 trillion worth of illegal
timber.
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