SBY: Police, military involved in logging<\/p>\n
Rendi A. Witular and Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Military and police personnel along with officials from the
\nministries of forestry and immigration are all involved in the
\nlucrative business of illegal logging in Papua, President Susilo
\nBambang Yudhoyono has proclaimed.<\/p>\n
His statement, quoted by Ministry of Forestry MS Kaban on
\nTuesday, drew immediate signals of apparent cooperation from the
\nmentioned institutions. Operations assistant to the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) chief Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, said the TNI is
\ninvestigating whether their involvement was limited to their
\npersonnel, or whether the institution itself was involved.<\/p>\n
Minister Kaban said, \"According to the President, personnel of
\nthe eastern Navy, the police in Papua, the Trikora Regional
\nMilitary Command (based in Papua provincial capital of Jayapura),
\nlocal offices of the ministries of forestry and immigration in
\nPapua, all have indications of being involved in illegal logging
\nin Papua.\" He had earlier attended an unscheduled Cabinet meeting
\non illegal logging.<\/p>\n
The meeting followed on last week's revelations by the London-
\nbased Environmental Investigation Agency and the Indonesian group
\nTelapak. It's report accused the TNI and other officials of
\nsmuggling 300,000 cubic meters of timber per month from Indonesia
\n(mostly Papua) to China, with a value of more than US$1 billion.<\/p>\n
Kaban on Tuesday named some of the business people allegedly
\ninvolved, with their main operations taking place in Papua,
\nJambi, East Kalimantan, Dumai in Riau and North Sumatra -- but he
\ndid not name any high ranking officials or military and police
\nofficers.<\/p>\n
\"There's no way the TNI is not involved. The ship carrying the
\nillegal timber was guarded by warships,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The President has instructed that an \"integrated crackdown\"
\ntake place in the next two weeks, Kaban said, against all
\nsuspected parties, which would cost some Rp 8 billion (about
\n$860,000).<\/p>\n
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said apart from
\ncooperating in the crackdown, his office would conduct \"shock
\ntherapy\" against personnel suspected of involvement in the crime.
\nA former police chief of Sorong regency in Papua and five of his
\nsubordinates are on trial for alleged illegal logging in the
\nprovince.<\/p>\n
Also on Tuesday deputy chief of detectives at the National
\nPolice Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida said police are seeking funding
\nof Rp 48 billion a year in order to conduct six operations per
\nannum, or Rp 8 billion per operation, against illegal logging.<\/p>\n
He said that with the Rp 8 billion spent in an earlier
\noperation, police had managed to recover around Rp 1.5 trillion
\nworth of illegal timber.<\/p>",
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