Forestry officials armed to fight illegal loggers

Forestry officials armed to fight illegal loggers

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

As many as 400 officials of the North Sumatra Forestry Office
have been armed with guns to protect themselves against illegal
loggers.

Each of the officials, including forest police officers, have
been armed with 32-caliber FN pistols to fight the illegal
loggers, many of whom are believed to be backed by security
personnel.

The money to buy the guns came from North Sumatra's 2003
budget.

North Sumatra Forestry Office head Prie Supriyadi said arming
the officers was necessary to prevent attacks by illegal loggers.

He said his officers needed weapons in order to arrest armed
illegal loggers, whose numbers continued to increase in the
province.

Local environmental activists have also been targeted for
intimidation by the loggers.

Activist Robert Valentino Ginting said he was once threatened
at gunpoint to stop agitating against illegal logging.

Robert said the incident occurred on July 15 at the office of
the Karo regent.

Supriyadi said he hoped now that his men were armed, they
would be more willing to confront illegal loggers and detain
them.

"The North Sumatra Police have trained all of my staff in the
proper use of firearms. So if they are threatened with guns, they
are trained how to respond," he said on Saturday.

Supriyadi did not rule out the possibility that some security
personnel were cooperating with the illegal loggers.

He said his office has asked the military and the police to
take action against any soldier or officer found to be working
with the loggers.

Provincial police spokesman Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim said his
office was committed to cracking down on illegal logging,
including any security personnel mixed up in the business.

Police in the province have made only one illegal logging-
related arrest this year, as well as seizing four truckloads of
logs, he said.

Last year, police made 55 arrests in 23 separate cases,
seizing 20 truckloads of logs, Amrin said.

Supriyadi said North Sumatra continued to lose more of its
forests each year to illegal logging and land clearance.

The destruction has covered more than one million hectares of
forest, including protected parks, across the regencies of
Mandailing Natal, Langkat, Karo, North Tapanuli, Dairi and
Central Tapanuli, he said.

"If this problem is not addressed immediately, deforestation
in the province will be even worse over the next few years."