Joint teams to speed up response to environmental destruction
Joint teams to speed up response to environmental destruction
Tony Hotland, Jakarta
Acknowledging the flaws in law enforcement for environmental
crimes, the government has established a joint team of
environmental experts, police officers and state prosecutors to
speed up and improve the investigations into such crimes.
"By creating a team that works under the same roof, we hope
that they will have a common understanding when identifying
environmental crimes and that the legal steps in such cases can
be accelerated," State Minister for the Environment Nabiel
Makarim said on Friday after signing an agreement on the
formation of the team with National Police chief Gen. Da'i
Bachtiar and Attorney General M.A. Rachman.
The team will have the authority to investigate and prosecute
those suspected of being involved in environmental crimes,
without having to go through the bureaucratic procedures at the
police and prosecutors' offices.
Nabiel cited examples of case files being submitted to
prosecutors' offices only to be returned due to inadequate
evidence
"Having experts, police and prosecutors in the same office
will hopefully give each of them a more open view, and therefore
help establish a common understanding when dealing with
environmental cases," Nabiel said.
Da'i said one of the reasons environmental crimes were
difficult to prosecute was because they were so dissimilar from
conventional crimes.
"It requires a scientific investigation, which many law
enforcers have no idea about. Furthermore, most environmental
crimes have no immediate impact, making them harder to prove," he
said.
The team, to be headquartered at the Office of the State
Minister for the Environment, will consist of five groups. Each
group will have a police officer, a prosecutor, a civil
investigator, an environmental expert and a crime scene expert.
They will focus their work on 15 provinces where environmental
destruction is considered to be the most prevalent.
"They will coordinate with us here (in Jakarta) to report on
environmental cases. They were trained together here about six
months ago on environmental issues," he said.
According to the office of the state minister, 48
environmental cases had been brought to court since 2001. Four
cases have been appealed to the Supreme Court, four are being
appealed at a high court, while the rest are still being tried.
The state minister has also proposed to the Supreme Court that
12 judges be trained and assigned to preside over environmental
cases in the courts.
Environmental destruction, including illegal logging and the
intentional setting of forest fires, has been blamed for many of
the natural disasters that have killed thousands of people and
destroyed thousands of homes around the country over the past few
years.
The Ministry of Forestry plans to issue a regulation in lieu
of law to set up a special team with the authority to fight
illegal logging.