Indonesia, Malaysia plan joint inquiry on illegal logging

JAKARTA (JP): Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to form a joint fact-finding mission to investigate a massive trade in illegal timber at the two countries' border areas.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations Suripto said on Thursday the mission would be formed after the terms of references for the mission's operations were finalized and agreed by both countries by the end of this month.

"I have met the Ambassador of Malaysia. He told me the Malaysian government has accepted our idea on the joint mission," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Suripto said the mission was expected to further investigate and collect evidence on the illegal logging and timber trade in the area, allegedly engaged in by Indonesian or Malaysian companies under protection from military personnel in the respective countries.

Indonesia and Malaysia, which share border lines along the northern part of Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo) have accused each other of the alleged involvement of their military personnel in the illegal logging since Suripto unveiled in June his office's findings on the alleged involvement of the Malaysian timber companies and military in the log smuggling activities.

Suripto said some Malaysian timber companies under the protection of the Malaysian military had allegedly sponsored the illegal logging and timber smuggling activities in East Kalimantan in cooperation with some local logging firms, which were also backed by "mischievous" Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel.

He said indications of the Malaysian military's presence in the area were shown in the discovery of bullet shells and military rations identical to those used by the Malaysian Royal Army during raids in some areas of East Kalimantan, where illegal logging and timber transaction have allegedly taken place.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has accused TNI of crossing the border in Kalimantan, saying it had found pairs of shoes in Serawak with the TNI logo printed on them.

Malaysia recently accused TNI of crossing the border in Serawak and detained four Malaysian nationals on suspicion of illegal logging.

Despite the debate on the military's involvement, Suripto said the bilateral joint fact-finding mission would include officials from the police and military of the two countries as well as officials from the forestry ministries and local administrations.

Suripto said the timber smuggling activities at the border area of the two countries in East Kalimantan had been going on for at least 10 years.

He said up to 100,000 cubic meters of "illegal" timber were smuggled out of Kalimantan every month and into the Malaysian state via Tarakan, resulting in a loss to the Indonesian government of up to US$10 million per month in potential revenue from the forestry sector. (cst)