Palm oil kernel thieft inside job, say councillors

Palm oil kernel thieft inside job, say councillors

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Provincial councillors here have demanded that the local police
and military take action against thieves of palm oil kernels and
their backers, who are believed to be security officers.

Chairman of the Provincial Legislative Council's Commission
for Legal Affairs, Jantogu Damanik, said on Tuesday, many palm
oil plantation operators, (either state or private), had
complained to the legislature about rampant theft. They said the
looting, that sometimes involved children, had amounted to tens
of billions of rupiah in financial losses.

He said that the councillors had written to the provincial
police chief Insp. Gen. Edi Sunarno and military commander Maj.
Gen. Imam Tamtomo asking them to take immediate action in
dissolving the theft ring as the crime involved security
officers.

"The thieves operate in an obvious way but are difficult to
arrest as they are supported by security officers and plantation
firm executives," Jantogu said.

The President Commissioner of a private palm oil plantation
company, PT Kuala Gunung, John Alwi, admitted his firm had been
targeted by the thieves for some time now.

He said the theft from the plantations, which are located in
Limapuluh district in Asahan regency, involved children and
women.

The most cases of theft occurred in 2001 with losses estimated
at over 800 tons of kernels.

"We asked at that time for help from the Police Mobile
Brigade, but the looting did not subside. The funds we provided
for security were a great burden to our budget as our output
ranges between 5,000 and 6,000 tons per year only," he said.

Provincial police spokesman Sr. Comr. Amrin Karim said the
police were conducting intensive operations to fight the theft.

He said that police had discovered the involvement of other
police and military officers in 10 cases of palm oil kernel theft
in plantations, belonging to the state forestry company PTPN last
year.

The police have recorded 286 cases of theft between January
2002 and July 2003 and named 443 suspects -- including 12 police
officers and eight military personnel. The police also
confiscated around 50 tons of kernels, 300 tons of palm oil seeds
and three trucks, as evidence.

District courts across the province sentenced 174 thieves to
imprisonment last year and are expected to pass sentence over the
remaining suspects this year.