Illegal logging paymasters enter RI on fake passports

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban says many illegal logging financiers enter the country using fake passports, with most financiers from Malaysia or China.

The financiers are very experienced, which makes their arrest more difficult, said Kaban on Saturday during a visit to the North Sumatra capital of Medan.

One suspected financier, identified as Lim Bo Hoen, has been under police observation for a few years but has so far evaded arrest.

Lim, who has been operating in North Sumatra, has often switched identities, using Indonesian or Malaysian nationality, said the minister.

Kaban, also the leader of the Crescent Star Party (PBB), said the practice could be put to a stop if all related government agencies cooperated to prevent illegal logging financiers from entering the country.

The presence of illegal logging financiers has contributed to the rapid pace of illegal logging in the country, the driving force behind the destruction each year of 2.8 million hectares of forest.

Kaban said that over the past 30 years, some 59.3 million hectares of forest in the country had been destroyed.

One hundred and twenty million hectares of forested land remains.

Kaban said most of the illegally felled timber was transported to Malaysia and China.

The minister said Indonesian officials from the government, police and military were involved in the illegal timber trade but the ministry was determined to bring to justice those responsible.

Kaban said the ministry had forwarded several names of government officials to the police for investigative purposes.

Among government officials being investigated is an official in Kota Cane, the capital of Southeast Aceh. Illegal logging was blamed for a landslide in the area two months ago, which killed dozens of people.

Separately, rector of Medan Area University Yakob Matondang supported the war against illegal logging but demanded consistency from the government.

In most cases, he said, government officials were only eager at the beginning of the drive, but soon lost steam.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared in March a nationwide anti-illegal logging drive. Since then, thousands of illegal loggers have been arrested.