Firms in Riau chided for paying police, TNI

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Several major companies in the natural-resource rich province of Riau allegedly pay the local police and Indonesian Military (TN) to ensure the safety of their operations, local figures said, following the disclosure of a similar practice by an American firm in Papua.

Among them, the local figures said, were U.S. oil and gas company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia, and pulp and paper company PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper.

"... what is certain is that several large firms in Riau always rely on the security forces in dealing with their problems with the local communities," Tabrani Rab, former Free Riau Movement activist and now a member of the Regional Advisory Council, said over the weekend.

"Every time I accompany people whose land has been taken by Caltex, I don't meet the company's management. Instead, I have to face the Riau police's Mobile Brigade," he said. "Once in a while I must deal with soldiers from the Wirabima military command in Riau."

According to Tabrani, Caltex is paying the police and the military between Rp 8 billion (about US$898,000) and Rp 9 billion per year.

In 1998 and 1999, when Indonesia was in the midst of political upheaval after President Soeharto's downfall, Caltex paid around Rp 20 billion, Tabrani said.

Caltex spokesman Hanafi Kadir confirmed that it was paying the police and the military. He refused to elaborate on the amounts and denied that Caltex hired the security forces to confront locals in land disputes.

The payments, Hanafi said, were to protect the company's oil and gas operations.

Since 1998, Caltex has been complaining about deteriorating security conditions in Riau. It has seen frequent road blockages and disputes with subcontractors' workers, while coping with the rampant theft of production equipment around its facilities.

Earlier, Hanafi said Caltex had incurred production losses worth more than $1 million from the ongoing blockade of one of its gas fields by villagers since last February.

The locals are demanding that Caltex repair the public roads it has damaged by letting trucks with heavy equipment pass over them.

Pulp and paper company Riau Andalan, a unit of the APRIL Group, faced a similar problem with public roads but was paying the police to turn a blind eye, charged Nasarudin Sagala, deputy chairman of the Riau office of the National Commission on Human Rights.

The company, he said, donated two Toyota Kijang vehicles to the police last year.

According to Tabrani, Riau Andalan had donated Rp 1 billion worth of vehicles and computers to the local police in 1998.

Riau Andalan spokesman Fachrunnas Jabbar said the company did donate two Kijangs to the police last year, but declined to comment further.

Riau police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. S. Pandiangan confirmed the donation, which he described as a form of public participation in helping the police doing their work.

"Let me emphasize again that the police are not paid directly. So it's not about getting paid or collecting fees," Pandiangan said.

Riau is not the only province where companies allegedly pay local police and the military in exchange for extra security.

American gold and copper mining company, PT Freeport Indonesia is paying tens of billions of rupiah to TNI personnel guarding the company's operations in the restive province of Papua.

Both TNI commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and Freeport have confirmed the reports. In 2002, the company increased payment to the TNI to US$5.6 million from $4.7 million in 2001.

The military and the police are struggling to operate amid tight budgets, which generally amount to less than half of their requirements.

Even before the 1997 financial crisis crippled the state budget, President Soeharto had given the TNI and police a free hand to "make" extra money.

But the policy has outgrown its purpose. Many TNI and police officers have become intimately involved in various businesses, many of them reportedly illegal.