Police capture logging ship in Papua

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.