I didn't lie at Earth Summit: Minister

I didn't lie at Earth Summit: Minister

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government challenged on Wednesday an alliance of non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) to prove their allegation
regarding the manipulation of reports the country presented
during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg recently.

State Minister for the Environment Nabiel Makarim told
reporters here his office had drafted the report based on
recognized and official data.

"I will invite the alliance to talk to us so we can see who
has told lies," he said.

Nabiel insisted the government had no plan to withdraw the
country report, which was distributed to all delegations
attending the summit early in August.

A source with Nabiel's office said the meeting had been
arranged for next week.

The Indonesian People's Forum, which comprises various NGOs
concerned with the environment, accused the government of
providing questionable data in the country report. Citing an
example, it said the Indonesian government claimed that between
200,000 hectares and 1.5 million hectares of forest were
destroyed in fires between 1997 and 1998, whereas the area
actually affected was as much as 10 million hectares.

The forum threatened to file a class action if the report was
not withdrawn.

The country report consisted of input from a variety of
development sectors, including forestry, health and water supply,
distributed in the forms of books and compact discs.