Court asked to hear reforestation fund case

JAKARTA (JP): Lawyers representing five environmentalists asked the administrative court yesterday to hear their lawsuit against President Soeharto who they accuse of diverting Rp 250 billion (US$105 million) in reforestation funds to a pulp and paper mill.

Lawyer Bambang Widjojanto told the Jakarta State Administrative Court that the President's decision to allocate the funds to the mill's development had been illegal because it violated Presidential Decree No. 40/1993 on the use of reforestation funds.

"The court has the authority to try this case," Bambang said in response to a recent rebuttal from Soeharto's lawyer, Attorney H.V.A. Lumempouw.

The defendant's attorney had said that the court had no jurisdiction over the case because a presidential decree was equal to law, which could only be reviewed by the House of Representatives.

Presiding senior judge Lintong Oloan Siahaan adjourned the hearing until July 14 when the court will decide whether to proceed with the case.

President Soeharto is being sued by environmentalist Emmy Hafild and four other green campaigners for issuing decree No. 93/1996 which granted Rp 250 billion in reforestation funds to PT Kiani Kertas.

PT Kiani Kertas is developing a $1 billion pulp and paper facility in Berau regency, East Kalimantan. The 3,400 hectare project is due to become operational this year, producing up to 500,000 tons of pulp and paper a year.

The company is a subsidiary of the Kalimanis Group, which is owned by timber baron Mohamad 'Bob' Hassan.

A Kiani Kertas executive said early this year that his company had "not touched" the reforestation funds.

The company has funded the project with $400 million in equity and $700 million from domestic loans.

The plaintiffs claim that under Environment Law No. 4/1982 everybody has the right to a good and healthy living environment and has the duty to preserve and prevent it from being polluted and destroyed.

Bambang said the pulp and paper project would threaten the environment with toxic air pollution.

"According to the decree (No. 43/1996) the funds should be used to rehabilitate the environment, not to fund an activity that has the potential to destroy the environment," Bambang said.

"There has been legal inconsistency which should be addressed here," he added.

Bambang quoted a study saying that 2.4 million hectares of the country's forests were being lost each year, while the Rp 5 trillion reforestation fund "if it was all used for reforestation" would stop only 22 percent of the total denuded forests. (aan)