1. Puteh 3 x 10

1. Puteh 3 x 10

KPU told to get tough on Puteh probe The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) was urged to exercise its authority to ensure the thorough investigation of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Governor Abdullah Puteh, who failed on Tuesday to respond to a summons to appear for questioning.

"The KPK must use their power, granted by the law, to ask the President to suspend the governor, or freeze his assets," said Romli Atmasasmita, coordinator of the Monitoring Forum for Corruption Eradication.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Romli was accompanied by other forum members, including legal experts involved in enacting the law on the KPK, such as former justice minister Muladi and senior lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution.

Earlier that day, Puteh sent a fax to the commission, that said he could not show up for questioning at the KPK due to his busy schedule. Instead, he pledged to appear on July 9.

However, his lawyers said their client would not answer the KPK's summons as it was sent as a fax.

Puteh was charged with involvement in an alleged markup of Rp 12.6 billion (US$1.4 million) in the 2002 purchase of a Russian Mi-2 helicopter by the Aceh administration. The alleged graft cost the state some Rp 4 billion.

He had been grilled by the commission twice before he was declared a suspect.

Romly asserted that if the KPK failed to use its power to investigate corruptors who were senior state officials, it would disgrace the commission.

Muladi said the forum backed the KPK's move and opposed any intervention by top government officials in Jakarta.

"Do not let corruption eradication efforts be tainted by political moves. Let it be settled by the law," he said.

A reliable source at the KPK complained that the commission was denied access by the Office of the Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs to obtain data on corruption cases in Aceh, which was collected by a ministry team.

The team, led by former finance minister Mar'ie Muhammad, was assigned to monitor and supervise the implementation of the one- year martial law in the restive province, including the allocation of its budget.

The KPK sent a letter on June 10, asking the Office to give it the data. But, in his reply to the request, acting security minister Hari Sabarno told the commission to "coordinate directly with the leadership of relevant agencies" to obtain the evidence.

According to a copy of Hari's letter to the commission, which was obtained by The Jakarta Post, Hari argued the team's findings had been submitted to the related agencies for follow-ups, because the data was still preliminary evidence or information.

Hari had earlier sent a letter to the KPK, saying the central government still "provided room and time" for Puteh to continue serving as the Aceh governor and the administrator of the province's state of civil emergency. The letter was issued as the commission summoned Puteh for the first time.

The report from the Mar'ie-led team, which was leaked to the media, shows at least 21 corruption cases worth billions of rupiah took place during the first six months of the year of martial law in Aceh, while other scandals hit the province in the second period of the military operation that started on May 19 last year.

2. Trial 1 x 28 Another BRI boss sent to jail

Another former Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) branch head was found guilty on Tuesday of stealing Rp 93.5 billion (US$9.5 million) in state funds and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Last week, former branch heads of BRI Segitiga Senen Deden Gumilar Sapoetra and BRI Pasar Tanah Abang Agus Riyanto, were sentenced to 16 years and six years in prison respectively for misusing state funds amounting to Rp 180 billion.

Asep Tarwan, former head of BRI Surya Kencana Bogor, was found guilty of channeling the money -- which came from an account of PT Jamsostek -- as credit to PT Delta Makmur Ekspresindo (PT DME) and PT Panca Prakarsa, without complying with proper procedures.

He was also fined Rp 250 million and was ordered to repay some Rp 40 billion to the state.

The sentence was lighter than the prosecution's recommendation of 20 years and a fine of Rp 83.6 billion.

The trial was held at the Bogor District Court, Bogor, led by Judge Russedar, who asked the defendant to be sent straight to prison after the trial.

Asep, wearing a blue shirt and black trousers, said he would consider appealing the verdict.

Separately, prosecutors at the Central Jakarta District Court recommended on Tuesday a 20-year prison term for Yudi Kartolo and Hartono Tjahjadjaja, commissioner and director of PT DME respectively.

"Both defendants were proven to have agreed to misappropriate state funds. Together with the banks' branch heads and their arrangers, they met several times to arrange the placement of credit in their accounts," said prosecutor Aziz Husein.

PT DME is the company that was allegedly used as a vehicle to take money from three BRI branches -- Surya Kencana Bogor, Segitiga Senen and Pasar Tanah Abang.

Yudi and Hartono attended the court session at the start of the trial but left later due to nausea. A letter signed by general practitioner Yansen Sitorus said Yudi had an acute digestion problem.

Prosecutors said Yudi and Hartono were proven to have at least four meetings with BRI branch heads before the placement of each deposit in the company's accounts in BRI.

Between July and September 2003, PT DME's accounts in the three BRI branches received at least Rp 273 billion as "loans with a high interest rate".

The money came from fixed deposit accounts, including those belonging to PT Jamsostek and Bank Pembangunan Daerah of East Kalimantan.

All account holders denied they gave permission to the BRI branches heads to use their money.

Yudi is reported to be an old hand at orchestrating banking fraud because of his alleged involvement in the Rp 1.1 trillion Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) case in 2001.

3. Fire 1 x 32 Police forest-fire investigation widens The police announced on Tuesday that they were seeking two more suspects and investigating around 10 companies in connection with forest fires that aggravated the haze shrouding parts of Sumatra island and neighboring countries recently.

Director of the National Police specific crimes division Brig. Gen. Suharto said, based on the interrogation of first suspect AS, police were now looking for Nainggolan and Simatupang, who were believed to have started forest fires.

"We hope we can arrest them soon. They can give information on who else was involved in the forest fires besides AS," Suharto said.

AS, director of a plantation company in Minas district, Riau, was detained and taken to Jakarta recently by a team consisting of officers from the National Police, the Office of the State Ministry of the Environment and the prosecutor's office.

The team said that AS had ordered two men to clear hundreds of hectares of land by burning the vegetation there.

Suharto explained police were investigating around 10 plantation companies allegedly involved in causing the fires in several locations in Riau province.

He said that the organizations were mostly pulp companies, which had cleared thousands of hectares of forest to plant trees to produce pulp. He declined to mention the names of any of the companies.

Head of the Riau Environmental Impact Management Agency (BAPEDALDA) Khairul Zaenal said recently that land clearance through burning had also occurred around other giant plantation companies in the area, such as PT Multi Gambut Industri, PT Raja Garuda Mas and PT Sari Lembah Subur.

"We are still investigating them. Soon, we shall announce the results. We believe that more people are involved in the matter," said Suharto.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Forestry sent several officials on Friday to Pekanbaru, Riau, to monitor the current situation in the field. "It's still ongoing; we don't know the details yet, but the situation in Riau is under control now," said Masyhud, head of the Data Analysis Center of the ministry on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, ministry officials also visited locations affected by fire in plantation areas in Perdana, South Pontianak, and at transmigration areas in Rasau subdistrict, West Kalimantan province.

As of July 5, the ministry had identified a total of 896 forests and plantation hot spots in West Kalimantan province, with 321 of the hot spots in forested areas.

Masyhud said that the number could be higher since many of the hot spots could not be captured by the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite, due to cloud cover and their small size.

According to Masyhud, the hot spots in the plantations in West Kalimantan occupied less than 0.15 hectares, the minimum coverage observable by the NOAA satellite.

"This is dangerous, because these kinds of hot spots are scattered throughout the island but we cannot monitor them because they are out of the satellite's reach," said Masyhud.

He added the governor of West Kalimantan had started a fire prevention initiative to keep the fires from worsening.

The initiative, inaugurated on Tuesday, will focus on several activities, such as hot spot monitoring, extinguishing fires and a public awareness program on the dangers of the slash-and-burn method.

Masyhud also lamented that the Ministry of Agriculture appeared negligent, even though most fires occurred in plantation areas.

"The ministry (of agriculture) hasn't taken any action to control the occurrence of fires in the plantations; neither has it allocated special funds for fire prevention," said Masyhud.

4. Cartagena 2 x 16

DPR discusses new genetics protocol

Ratifying an international biological diversity protocol would help protect the country from the negative effects of making and using genetically modified organisms (GMOs), environmental activists said.

The activists met with members of the House of Representative's commission I on foreign affairs on Tuesday to discuss ratifying the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The commission has also met with scientists and businesses about the protocol.

Adopted in Montreal, Canada, in 2000, the protocol is an add- on measure to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. In 1994, Indonesia passed Law No.5/1994 on Biological Diversity to ratify the convention. Legislators passed the law to ensure the country did not become a laboratory for GMO research by foreign interests.

Biodiversity Foundation (Kehati) director Ismid Hadad said the Cartagena Protocol had clear guidelines for the creation of GMOs.

"The ratification of the protocol is important for us," he told legislators in the commission on Tuesday.

Tejo Wahyu Jatmiko from the National Consortium for Indonesia's Forest and Natural Conservation (Konphalindo) said environmental organizations backed the ratification.

"We have been waiting (for this) for four years," he said.

The protocol sets out guidelines to ensure an adequate level of protection for the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms, which may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity resources. It takes into account the risks to human health and specifically focuses on the international movement of GMOs.

The most important aspect in the Cartagena Protocol is the adoption of the "precautionary principle", which anticipates scientific uncertainty in the making of GMOs.

The Cartagena Protocol mandates the need for risk assessment and risk management procedures before organisms can be genetically modified.

After the government ratified the protocol, it would have to consult with the public to formulate regulations on the treatment of GMOs, Tejo said.

The government also needed to strengthen the agencies that would be involved in regulating GMO research and use, he said.

This would need to be done at both national and regional levels, he said.

5. Witness 2 x 24 Terror suspects pushed to testify in Ba'asyir trial

Police are trying to convince seven detained terrorist suspects to testify at the planned trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, a cleric also detained for alleged terrorist activities.

Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Suyitno Landung Sudjono said on Tuesday that police were trying to link Dahlan and six other terrorist suspects arrested in Surakarta, Central Java last week to Ba'asyir, so that they could testify at his trial.

"We are still interrogating them in Central Java and Bali. Dahlan was involved in planning an attack on the JW Marriott Hotel, while the six others were accused of involvement in the Marriott and Bali bombings. We will find a link between Ba'asyir and the seven," said Suyitno.

Police named Ba'asyir a terrorist suspect on April 16 and charged him under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 18 of Law No. 15/2003 on terrorism for planning, coercing, abetting and perpetrating terrorist attacks. He could face the death sentence if convicted.

Suyitno said earlier that as the spiritual leader of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), Ba'asyir was responsible for planning bomb attacks in the country between 1999 and 2002.

JI is a UN-listed terrorist organization blamed for the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali bombings and the Aug. 5, 2003 JW Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said in Semarang last week that the six played a central role in planning and preparing both attacks, in which over two hundred people were killed and hundreds of others injured.

He said it had also been revealed that the six were involved in the planning of the attack on the United Nations building in 2003.

Da'i clarified on Friday last week that they were all members of the JI.

Police said one of the six suspects, identified by his initials US, was a citizen of a neighboring country. The remaining suspects were identified as AD, BA, MT, UM, and FH.

Ba'asyir's case file was submitted to the Jakarta prosecutor's office two weeks ago. Police said that they found new evidence that the cleric was behind a series of bombings that rocked the country since 1999.

Director of the police's antiterror division Brig. Gen. Pranowo said Ba'asyir would be tried soon, as the prosecutor's office had confirmed that his case file was complete.

"However, we don't want to be in too much of a hurry because we want to gather as much evidence as possible -- we still have time," said Pranowo.

Ba'asyir was tried last year but prosecutors failed to prove his involvement in terrorist activities. However, he was sentenced to prison for immigration offenses and document forgery. He was rearrested shortly after his release in April, triggering a violent clash between his supporters and police.