Who is stealing the teak trees?

KENDARI, Southeast Sulawesi: Muna Regent Ridwan ordered local police to release 200 villagers suspected of stealing teak logs from the forest in the regency and to drop the case against them.

"It is strange and unfair that the police have investigated the 200 villagers while timber businessmen who had carried logs freely to their sawmills are set free," Antara quoted him as saying here on Saturday.

He said he had no objection to the ongoing investigation into the villagers but the police should be fair in enforcing the law.

The 200 villagers were netted in a police operation to eliminate rampant illegal logging in the regency.

Thousands of hectares of forest area have been left barren because of the rampant illegal logging in the regency over the last three years. --Antara