Squatting rampant in Leuser park

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: Some 13,300 hectares of the 1.2-square kilometer Gunung Leuser National Park in Southeast Aceh regency have been denuded due to rampant forest squatting and illegal logging in the protected national park.

O.K. Ibrahim, spokesman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction at the Aceh provincial legislature, said here on Tuesday that rampant squatting and illegal logging in the national park had a lot to do with the absence of law enforcement by local authorities in Southeast Aceh.

"Many local officials and law enforcers in the regency not only tacitly support illegal logging activities but have also been directly involved in forest plunder," he said at the legislative council's hearing with the provincial executive.

He said many villages had been inundated by flash flooding because of the rampant forest plunder.

Deputy Governor Azwar Abubakar, who represented the executive in the hearing, pledged to halt the rampant squatting and illegal logging. --Antara