Govt plans more projects secure Kalimantan borders
Govt plans more projects secure Kalimantan borders
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government will soon increase development projects in border
areas on Kalimantan island, which Indonesia shares with Malaysia,
in a move aimed at 'securing' the region, President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono announced on Wednesday.
He said the projects include developing plantations and roads
along the border areas, where transnational crimes are rampant.
"Indonesia has 2,004 kilometers of border with Malaysia on
Kalimantan island. If it is not managed well then there will many
problems, such as theft, (illegal) border-crossers and
insecurity," Susilo was quoted by Antara as telling governors of
Kalimantan provinces in Pontianak.
He said that if plantations could be developed in parallel
with the building of roads in the border areas, then the so-
called back streets, which are often used by persons engaged in
illegal activities, could be closed.
"Along the roads we will be able to set up security and check-
point posts. (With the development projects) tens or even
hundreds of thousands of people could be employed in the border
areas," the President said.
Susilo is in Pontianak, the provincial capital of West
Kalimantan, for a two-day visit until Thursday. He flew directly
there from Manila, Philippines, where he ended a three-day trip
on Wednesday.
The visit to West Kalimantan was to discuss with governors and
other senior officials efforts to fight illegal logging and to
settle border problems.
On Thursday, the President is set to visit several facilities
in Entikong, an area bordering Indonesia and Malaysia located
some 300 kilometers from Pontianak.
Hundreds of elementary school students cheered the President
along the road from Supadio Airport to the West Kalimantan
governor's office.
In response, Susilo opened the window of his presidential car
and waved to the welcoming students.
However elsewhere, hundreds of university students staged a
protest against the new presidential regulation that allows the
government to compulsorily acquire land for development purposes
if the owner refuses to accept offered compensation.
Carrying posters, the protesters also demanded that the
government get serious in eradicating rampant illegal logging on
the island.
Police officers blocked the protesters from getting through to
the route being used by the President's entourage.
Susilo has set up a team to curb illegal logging following a
report that was jointly conducted by the London-based
Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the Indonesian
environmental group Telapak, which claimed that 300,000 cubic
meters of timber per month is being smuggled from Papua to China.
He agreed with the report, indicating the possible involvement
of military and police officers as well as officials from the
ministries of forestry and immigration in the lucrative illegal
logging business in Papua.
The so-called "integrated crackdown" against illegal logging
in Papua, which cost some Rp 8 billion, only managed to net
several middle-ranking police officers and a few others from the
Ministry of Forestry. Some of the suspects have been prosecuted
for the crime.
Unfortunately, there was no significant curbing of illegal
logging nationwide.
Some 43 million hectares of Indonesian forests have been
damaged or destroyed over the past decades due to illegal
logging, with the average annual deforestation rate estimated at
more than 2.8 million hectares since 1998, according to data from
the Ministry of Forestry.
Indonesia has lost trillions of rupiah due to rampant illegal
logging, the ministry says.