House urges police to be proactive on environment
House urges police to be proactive on environment
JAKARTA (JP): A commission in the House of Representatives has
urged the national police to take a more active role in the
campaign to preserve the environment.
The House's Commission X, which deals with environmental
issues, said the national police should allocate a greater budget
and more personnel to deal with increasing violations of
environmental laws and regulations.
At a hearing with National Police Chief Gen. Banurusman, the
commission yesterday suggested the police establish a special
unit to deal with environmental issues.
It was no less than State Minister of Environment Sarwono
Kusumaatmadja who pointed out that the nation's law enforcers and
courts of law have not really caught up with the trend to be more
conscious about the need to preserve the environment. Sarwono had
said earlier that the courts still have a tendency to let
violators off lightly.
During the hearing yesterday Gen. Banurusman said there is no
special force within the national police to deal with
environmental violations and that the cases were treated like
other crimes.
"There are no special funds provided to investigate
environmental issues," he said.
Aside from the lack of finance, police also lacked sound
forensic laboratory facilities and highly skilled professionals
in the field, he admitted.
He said police detecting facilities are also lagging far
behind the more sophisticated technology used by companies to
conceal pollution and other environmental violations.
Gen. Banurusman told the commission that police are usually
brought in on environmental cases at a later stage, usually after
indications that any wrongdoing has been committed.
Police are not involved in the monitoring of environmental
impact analysis. "We only know what happens downstream, without
having a clue as to what happened upstream," he said.
Gen. Banurusman stressed that these limitations should not be
construed as the national police not being concerned about
environmental issues.
"We're cooperating with the office of the State Minister of
Environment," he said, adding that many officers have taken part
in environmental courses and also joined in some of the
government's environmental operations.
"However, it takes a long time to educate an officer to become
a professional investigator with a specialty in the technical
aspects of environmental crime," he said.
According to the state ministry of environment, an
environmental impact analysis is required by companies who intend
to build sophisticated, large-scale plants or a plant which has a
significant impact on the environment, such as chemicals, pulp
and metal factories as well as power generators producing over
five Mega Watts of electricity, forest plantations, mining
activities and other activities carried out in sensitive areas.
Gen. Banurusman explained that over the last five years,
police have brought to court and solved 12 cases dealing with
environmental issues.
Among these cases are the trafficking of endangered species,
river and ground water pollution by textile companies, pulp and
paper and leather and chemical companies throughout the country.
Many other cases are also currently under investigation. (pwn)