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

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)