Ex-General Arrested for Illegal Logging: Kalimantan, Indonesia

At the moment we have a retired general currently under investigation for a large arms cache of which he cannot explain. The other day a brigadier-general of the police force was caught with drugs, and now we have a two-star general arrested for his role in illegal logging. Who says there is corruption in Indonesia!.

The National Police said they had arrested three company directors including a retired two-star Army general for their alleged roles in illegal logging in East Kalimantan. The suspects, responsible for trees being cut down by their companies on state owned land in the province, illegally sold the logs to Singapore and Malaysia.

Police have confiscated 6,214 cubic meters of logs and 18 tractors following the arrests. The suspects were identified as Maj. Gen. Gusti Syarifudin of PT TBP, Arifin of PT PBS and Darul Hakim of CV SJA. Apparently the three companies collaborated in the alleged crime.

The irony of all this is that the companies obtained licenses from the local government to convert forested land in East Kalimantan into an oil palm plantation but they did not hold permits from the Forestry Ministry to cut down trees. The companies had occupied 15 kilometres of land outside their concessionaire area where they were supposed to grow oil palm.

Forest conversion practices along with illegal logging are blamed for Indonesia's high deforestation rate which reached 3.5 million hectares in 2005.

A report from the Forestry Ministry said that poor law enforcement was the main reason for the massive deforestation of the country which suffered annual losses amounting to between Rp 30 trillion and Rp 45 trillion.