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.