I didn't lie at Earth Summit: Minister<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government challenged on Wednesday an alliance of non-
\ngovernmental organizations (NGOs) to prove their allegation
\nregarding the manipulation of reports the country presented
\nduring the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
\nJohannesburg recently.<\/p>\n
State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim told
\nreporters here his office had drafted the report based on
\nrecognized and official data.<\/p>\n
\"I will invite the alliance to talk to us so we can see who
\nhas told lies,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Nabiel insisted the government had no plan to withdraw the
\ncountry report, which was distributed to all delegations
\nattending the summit early in August.<\/p>\n
A source with Nabiel's office said the meeting had been
\narranged for next week.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian People's Forum, which comprises various NGOs
\nconcerned with the environment, accused the government of
\nproviding questionable data in the country report. Citing an
\nexample, it said the Indonesian government claimed that between
\n200,000 hectares and 1.5 million hectares of forest were
\ndestroyed in fires between 1997 and 1998, whereas the area
\nactually affected was as much as 10 million hectares.<\/p>\n
The forum threatened to file a class action if the report was
\nnot withdrawn.<\/p>\n
The country report consisted of input from a variety of
\ndevelopment sectors, including forestry, health and water supply,
\ndistributed in the forms of books and compact discs.<\/p>",
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