Timber bosses challenge logging discrimination<\/p>\n
Nethy Dharma Somba and Puji Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura\/Pekanbaru<\/p>\n
Irritated by inconsistency on the part of security officers,
\ntimber businesspeople have taken the law into their own hands,
\nseizing timber being transported into Jayapura city.<\/p>\n
Amid a fierce campaign against illegal logging nationwide,
\ndozens of people representing several groups involved in the
\ntimber trade seized on Wednesday night 15 cubic meters of various
\ntypes of undocumented timber.<\/p>\n
\"The security officers are unfair. On the one hand, they
\narrest illegal loggers and increase their surveillance over
\ntimber transportation. But, on the other hand, they allow some
\ngroups to transport undocumented timber into Jayapura,\" said
\nChris Wamuar, a local timber businessman. \"Such inconsistencies
\nhave forced us to take the law into our own hands,\" he added.<\/p>\n
It is not clear whether the timber businesspeople hold the
\ndocuments in question themselves.<\/p>\n
The group of people waited on Jl. Abepura just outside
\nJayapura on Wednesday evening for trucks carrying timber into the
\ncity. As the trucks approached they blocked the road and demanded
\nto see documents certifying the timber was legally logged.<\/p>\n
The drivers of six trucks had no documents, so the people
\nseized the timber, but let the truck drivers continue on their
\nway.<\/p>\n
Chris said the timber would be put up for tender. However, he
\nclaimed to have no idea who would profit from the sale.<\/p>\n
\"We will continue to take this sort of action until next week.
\nWe hope that it can open the hearts and minds of security
\nofficers, so that this unfair practice is put to an end,\" Chris
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Jayapura Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Muhammad Son Ani was not
\navailable for comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Separately in Pekanbaru on Riau Island, a top police officer
\nannounced on Thursday that local police had seized almost 2,000
\ncubic meters of timber in an anti-illegal logging operation
\nconducted since March 5.<\/p>\n
Three sawmills were shut down during the operation and 33
\npeople arrested, said Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. S. Damanhuri.
\nHe said none of the people arrested were police or Army
\npersonnel.<\/p>\n
The National Police embarked on an anti-illegal logging
\noperation in February following President Susilo Bambang
\nYudhoyono's instruction for them to crack down on illegal
\nloggers.<\/p>\n
The President's order came after two environmental groups
\npublished a report in February, entitled The Last Frontier, which
\nrevealed the largest timber smuggling case of a single species
\never discovered, an operation estimated to be worth more than
\nUS$900 million a year.<\/p>\n
The report documented the smuggling of about 300,000 cubic
\nmeters of timber a month from Indonesia, mostly Papua province,
\nto China.<\/p>",
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