Wood looters' wives go naked

Muna, Southeast Sulawesi: Teakwood thieves here have perfected a revealing way to humble forest rangers -- by exploiting their embarrassment of naked women while they exploit the environment.

The crooks have taken their wives with them and, any time rangers pursue them in the forest, the women will quickly go strip in the hope that the officers would let them go while they make off with loot.

La Ode Maradala, chief of Muna regency legislative council, said that, first, the men cut down the trees and then the women, in groups of six, load the logs onto carts which they push to secret locations.

"They will strip off as soon as the rangers will catch them in the act along the way," he said. "They hope the officers will be too embarrassed to catch them."

The women get Rp 250,000 from the fencer for each cubic meter of teakwood they manage to collect.

Maradala said he was impressed by the women's courage when confronted by the police. The naked wives have sometimes continued pushing and dragging their loot, even after rangers fired warning shots into the air.

In such situations, the rangers usually withdraw. "However tough the rangers may be, they don't have the heart to hurt the nude housewives," Maradala said.--Antara