Three arrested for poaching in Lampung
Oyos Saroso HN, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung, Lampung
A joint police and military team have arrested three people, including an officer with the Indonesian Military (TNI), for poaching in the Talang Bamban forest, West Lampung, an official said here on Thursday.
The three were First. Sgt. Joko Pramono, an officer with the Padang Uji District Military Command in the neighboring province of Bengkulu, and his two civilian accomplices Al Ashar, 38 and Masfirin, 39.
Joko is now being detained at the Liwa District Military Command in Lampung, while Ashar and Masfirin are occupying separate cells in the West Lampung Police Station.
Adj. Sr. Comr. Rachmat Fudail, the chief of West Lampung Police, said on Thursday that the arrest was made following information from locals who had found the remains of five elephants in the forest last week.
They suspected that the elephants were killed by three hunters who were seen roaming Talang Bamban forest last week.
Dozens of personnel from the West Lampung Police and local forestry and conservation offices were immediately deployed to hunt down the hunters.
They were finally able to apprehend the hunters in the forest on Sunday, said Rachmat.
The joint team seized one mouser rifle, a tiger tooth, a foot of a scaly anteater and 30 mouser bullets. However, they told police investigators that they were not responsible for the death of the five elephants.
Rachmat said that the police and the military were preparing the dossiers, and the case would immediately be brought to court.
Separately, Mukri Priyatna, the head of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment's (Walhi) Lampung office, expressed concern over illegal hunting in the Lampung and Bengkulu areas, especially in the South Bukit Barisan National Park (TNBBS) in West Lampung and Way Kambas National Park in East Lampung.
He said hunting had reached an alarming level there. Dozens of deer in the area had been killed and the meat was freely sold along the Sumatra central highway, he said.
Additional data from TNBBS showed that some 200 elephants had been killed since 1993.
Mukri revealed that the police and TNI personnel were often involved in poaching, and they normally recruited local guides.
In January last year, Way Kambas National Park representatives and the East Lampung Police apprehended three TNI officers and six low-ranking police officers, who were hunting in the territory of the national park.
They were prosecuted in the Palembang Military Court in South Sumatra, said Mukri.