New police unit the last to know about smuggling
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city police's new natural resources and environmental crimes division was probably the last official body to be informed about the attempted smuggling of about 1,000 protected pig-nosed turtles recently at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Despite this, the division's chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Ahmad Haydar, said his men had tried to get onto the case, which is currently being handled by civilian investigators from the Ministry of Forestry's Natural Resources Conservation Unit (BKSDA).
"I have discussed the matter with BKSDA officials and asked them to hand the case over to us so that the perpetrators won't be able to walk away as has happened in the past," Haydar told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.
Established in January 2003, the new division is still not quite sure about its jurisdiction as in current practice it is the BKSDA that has the power to investigate cases involving protected fauna and environmental damage.
"But the civilian investigators do not follow the cases through to the prosecutors' office, which then brings it to court," Haydar said.
Such overlapping jurisdiction could only be resolved by revising the legislation, which would be time-consuming.
According to an expert on environmental law, coordination between the civilian investigators and the police is a must, as well as capacity-building among all the officials involved.
"Data from the Office of the State Minister for the Environment shows that only a few environmental cases go to court despite the increasing number of such crimes," Rino Subagyo, the head of the advocacy section of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), told the Post on Sunday.
Although hailing the existence of the new police division as an example of progress in the country's efforts to protect the environment, Rino said the police should not only wait for cases to come their way, but should also start conducting their own investigations.
Haydar argued that as not many people knew about the existence of the new division, the police rarely received public complaints.
"We have to monitor the news, seeking out environmental violations ourselves," he said, declining to reveal the number of cases the division had handled since 2003.
Currently, the 40-investigator-strong division was handling a case involving an oil spill allegedly caused by a China National Offshore Oil Corp. rig in the Thousand Islands Regency, North Jakarta.
Besides environmental cases, the division also has jurisdiction to handle violations of consumer protection law, forestry law and health law.
"We are still trying to find a way to make the public aware of our existence so that they can file reports with us immediately should they suffer any violations of their rights as consumers or health service consumers, or become aware of any violations of environmental and forestry legislation," Haydar remarked.