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)