Police capture logging ship in Papua

Nethy Dharma Somba and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura/Medan

The nationwide drive against illegal logging continued as the police apprehended a foreign ship carrying illegal logs in Papua and a minister revealed that a number of officials were allegedly involved in the rampant illegal logging.

The police in Sarmi regency bordering Papua New Guinea were still bringing the ship, logging equipment and nine crew members from Sarmi to Jayapura seaport for further investigation.

Reliable sources at the Sarmi Police station said the ship Godrilabuan II which was chartered by Malaysian timber baron Lai Rue Tang to supply two timber companies PT Jutha Daya Perkasa and PT Papua Limbah Mewah in Takar district, was held because it did not have a license to operate in Indonesia.

The sources said all detainees, the ship and logging equipment were moved to Jayapura because the police would thoroughly investigate the case and seek detailed information on illegal logging activities in the province.

The detainees consisting of three Indonesians, five Malaysians and one Filipino and the ship was expected to arrive in Jayapura early on Saturday.

Separately Papua governor Jaap Solossa demanded that the central government take action against corrupt security personnel from the local police and Navy units who have backed the ravaging of forests in the province.

"Illegal logging is rampant in the province because it receives the backing of corrupt police and Navy personnel in the province," he said.

Ecologists also called on the government to take harsh actions against all sides involved in illegal logging.

John Handol, spokesman for an alliance of local environmental groups, said in Jakarta that Malaysian timber barons who bribed senior government and security officials to plunder the tropical forests in Papua, have smuggled around 200,000 cubic meters of illegal logs from the province to China and India through the Southern Philippines.

"The smuggling has gone on for nine months and it has involved local loggers and is backed by politicians from Jakarta and security officials from the Navy and the National Police," Handol told a press conference held to present the result of their investigation into the smuggling of logs from Papua.

Handol, also coordinator of the environmental group Aliansi, said the timber mafia had used the year-long election to shield illegal logging from public attention.

The modus operandi in the illegal logging was very simple since local loggers who were paid by the timber barons with cash were deployed to virgin forests under "the custody" of security personnel from the local Navy command and the local police units, he said.

"We have several names of Malaysian timber barons known powerful and untouchable in Papua because they have paid local security authorities to guard them and their business," he said.

He said the illegal logs were shipped with fake documents from Papua New Guinea (GNP) through Mali in southern Philippines to China and India, two alleged major destinations of illegal logs from Indonesia.

The timber barons have used many Thai vessels to transport the illegal logs and their crew members were mostly Chinese and Thais.

In Medan, North Sumatra, State Minister for the Environment. S. Kaban warned that he would not compromise with any party involved in illegal logging, saying a number of regional heads allegedly involved in such crimes will be brought to court.

Declining to identify them, the minister revealed that many regional heads have shielded behind the regional autonomy law to abuse their power in the forestry sector in their own region.

"Whoever they are, whether they are regional heads or not, they should not try to seek a compromise from me...," he said.

Kaban and his entourage were here to make a field tour of a reforestation program in Sibisa, Toba regency and in Bukit Lawang tourist resort which was devastated by a flash flood last year.