KL denies encroachment

KL denies encroachment

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A minister Friday denied Indonesian claims
that Malaysian loggers moved border markers on Borneo island so
they could steal timber from Indonesian territory.

Land and Cooperative Development Minister Kasitah Gaddam said
checks by mapping department officials showed that marker stones
were still where they had been planted by joint border
demarcation teams.

"Based on the report of the officials, the logging area was
also within Malaysian territory and not in Indonesia," the
official Bernama news agency quoted Kasitah as saying in the
northeastern town of Kota Baru.

"Allegations that Malaysian loggers had encroached into
Indonesian territory are unfounded."

Indonesia's Forestry Ministry Secretary-General, Suripto, said
this week that Jakarta would take Malaysia to the International
Court of Justice if it did nothing to end alleged illegal logging
by its citizens along their border.