Govt to retake 3,100-ha plot from Soeharto son

JAKARTA (JP): A 3,100-hectare forestry area in a huge township project near Bogor controlled by the second eldest son of former president Soeharto will revert to the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations, a forestry official said on Monday.

Director General of Inventory and Forest Land Use Soebagjo Hadisepoetro said a new presidential decree would be issued soon revoking Presidential Decree No.1/1997 on the 30,000-hectare Jonggol township in Bogor, West Java, and two other developments.

"God willing, the presidential decree will be issued by the end of this month," he said after opening an international conference on tropical forest land inventory.

"After the revocation, the development in the area will be in line with the existing planning. And since the Jonggol area previously functioned as a water catchment area, it will be reforested."

Earlier this month, President B.J. Habibie decided to revoke the three presidential decrees signed by his predecessor Soeharto. They are Presidential Decree No. 52/1995 on the reclamation of the North Jakarta Bay, Presidential Decree No. 73/1995 on the reclamation of the Kapuk Naga coast in Tangerang and Presidential Decree No. 1/1997 on the development of Jonggol.

Reasons given for the revocation of the decrees include the extension of special privileges to the project owners and violations of city planning regulations.

PT Bukit Jonggol Asri, the developer of the Jonggol township project, is controlled by Soeharto's second eldest son Bambang Trihatmodjo and the Kaestindo Group. PT Manggala Krida Yudha, one of the developers of the Jakarta Bay reclamation project, is owned by Bambang's youngest sister, Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih.

Early this year, the ministry requested that the township project be put on hold until a dispute was settled.

Soebagjo asserted that PT Bukit Jonggol Asri had not fulfilled its obligation to provide forest areas in exchange for development of Jonggol, about 30 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.

He said the ministry agreed in 1996 to allow the firm the use of the 3,100 hectares of state forestry areas in exchange for 8,000 hectares of forested areas in the West Java regencies of Cianjur, Tasikmalaya and Garut.

The consortium subsequently proposed exchanging the 3,100 hectares from the government with the same acreage of land.

However, the area offered by the consortium was not forested land as stipulated in their original agreement, Soebagjo added.

Soebagjo said the ministry would also rehabilitate the area allocated for the Kapuk Naga reclamation project, conducted by PT Kapuk Naga Indah.

Kapuk Naga, a subsidiary of the widely diversified Salim business group, was licensed to reclaim 674 hectares north of Pantai Kapuk in the western part of the Jakarta Bay reclamation zone, which covers a total area of 2,700 hectares.

The investors claimed that the Kapuk Naga reclamation project, which was scheduled to be completed within 15 years, would improve the preservation of mangrove forests along the coast.

But many environmental analysts have charged that the project actually threatens the biodiversity of North Jakarta's mangrove forests. (gis)