Malaysia, RI to step up security on shared border

Malaysia, RI to step up security on shared border

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia and Indonesia on Tuesday pledged to cooperate in the fight against illegal logging, smuggling and piracy at their common border on Borneo island by increasing security.

Malaysia's defense minister Najib Razak said two new security outposts would be built in 2004 on the border to improve security along Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state and Indonesia's Kalimantan.

It would take the number of outposts along the border to five.

Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who led the Indonesian delegation to the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, said both countries needed to be aware of the potential for terrorist activities on porous and poorly manned border areas. He added they must also fight drugs, weapons and people-smuggling.

But the meeting, which was attended by some 40 top officials from both countries, focused mostly on the divisive issue of illegal logging.

Endriartono said the practice had to be contained and that both countries would cooperate to fight the menace.

"Yes, there are illegal logging activities. There are bad people everywhere. We are working to overcome it and agreed to increase the number of security posts," he said.

Endriartono added the two countries had also addressed the problem of border markers being moved, which previous reports said had been done by Malaysian loggers to enable them to steal timber from Indonesia. "It is a problem. But we are tackling it together," Endriartono said.

"I am confident we can cooperate to overcome the threats."

There have been claims and counter-claims in the logging dispute on the huge and underdeveloped island of Borneo, which is divided between Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

Indonesia's forestry department says annual deforestation rates hit 2.4 million hectares (5.9 million acres) last year, with estimated losses in government revenue from illegal logging and timber smuggling of more than US$3.5 billion.