'Environmental law should be revised'
JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Singgih proposed yesterday that the 1982 law on environmental management should be revised because it demands material evidence that prosecutors are rarely able to provide.
The overly tight requirements explain why polluters charged with environmental damage often escape punishment, the attorney general said.
Under the current law, material evidence has to be supported with data on chemical, biological and toxin contents verified by laboratory testing.
The legislation also requires that prosecutors consider the possible social effects of their legal action against the polluter, he was quoted by Antara as saying.
"For example if a factory is closed down for polluting the environment, what would happen to its workers? But if it is not shut down, would it really endanger nearby residents?" he said.
Article 22 of the environmental law states that anyone convicted of knowingly damaging or polluting the environment is subject to a 10-year prison term or a maximum fine of Rp 100 million.
At present, legal action is used as a last resort after repeated appeals, dialogs and administrative approaches have failed to stop the polluter.
So complicated is the procedure demanded by the law, only a few environmental disputes have ever reached court.
"Prosecutors find it just too difficult to come up with the evidence required by the law," said Ismudjoko, a justice for general crimes.
He said laboratory testing was a difficult requirement to meet due to the limited number of suitable facilities.
Ismudjoko proposed that the government build laboratories in each province to ensure cases of environmental damage are tackled properly.
Environmental disputes are mostly settled out of court by the alleged polluter, the public and the government, he said.
The first prosecution of a polluter was in 1989 when an East Java soy bean curd factory owner was taken to court on charges of polluting the River Surabaya.
The accused, Bambang Gunawan, was acquitted after witnesses' evidence, obtained from data from two different laboratories, proved to be conflicting.
Bambang was charged with extensive pollution of the river between March 1986 and July 1988. So serious was the contamination it killed most of the marine life and the water could barely be processed into drinking water.
Witnesses from the Surabaya Environment Sanitary Office said the pollution level had surpassed the maximum tolerable limit but experts from local industry office reported the level had been "very low".
The outcome of the trial was a disappointment to both government officials and the public. (pan)