Red faces over lumber boss' acquittal

Indonesia - As Jakarta prepares to play host at the Bali Conference on Climate Change early next month, the furore surrounding the high-profile acquittal of a lumber boss by a North Sumatran court earlier this month threatens to become a serious embarrassment for the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Although acquitted of corruption and illegal logging, Mujur Timber Group boss Adelin Lis seems likely to continue to be the focus of media attention. This is because he is wanted by police yet again, this time for money laundering, a charge believed to be closely connected to the earlier cases. Despite the seriousness of the deforestation facing the country, illegal loggers are rarely charged in court. And those that do face trial are usually acquitted on a technicality or sentenced to a year or two in jail at most.

In West Sumatra, for example, seven illegal logging cases were dismissed in the past year. Over the same period, 14 suspects were freed in Papua. Several others were also acquitted in Aceh and West Kalimantan. And in most instances, the suspects were freed by the courts despite what many officials referred to as 'compelling evidence' that they were involved in illegal logging.

But while most of these cases are quickly forgotten, the Adelin case is rapidly becoming a cause celebre among environmentalist groups, who see it as a test of the government's determination to deal with the deforestation issue.

What makes the case of Adelin so different? One answer is that when Adelin stood trial, it appeared the authorities had finally caught a big fish. Most other cases usually involve the prosecution of low-level workers and supervisors - those caught red- handed cutting down the trees or transporting the logs. And Adelin was not easy to catch. North Sumatra police got their hands on him only in March - five months after he was apprehended in China after a seven-month manhunt.

The companies Adelin is connected to are among dozens believed to be engaged in illegal logging across North Sumatra. These companies have also been accused of starting fires to clear land, producing a choking haze that has been felt as far away as Malaysia and Singapore.

At the trial, prosecutors had demanded he be jailed for 10 years. They also insisted that he pay the equivalent of millions of US dollars to the government for the loss of timber in the Mandailing Natal regency between 2000 and 2005.

Yet another reason for the angry response of environmentalists to Adelin's acquittal was the fact that two other suspects associated with different companies under Adelin's Mujur Timber Group were acquitted of similar charges by Medan district courts earlier this year.

But the saga does not end there.

On Nov 6, the day after the court acquitted Adelin, officials who turned up to re-arrest him on new charges were told that he had already been released. His whereabouts unknown, Adelin has once again been placed on the police most-wanted list.

Since then, the local media has had a field day, reporting that police are trying to find out why Adelin was released on the basis of an executive order dated Nov 1, when the court did not hand down its judgment until Nov 5.

And in yet another move likely to encourage speculation, four of the five judges who acquitted Adelin have reportedly been 'promoted' by the Supreme Court to various posts outside Medan.

Illegal logging has become a major problem in Indonesia, with the country losing forest cover reportedly equal to an area the size of Switzerland every year. Critics allege that enforcement efforts have been half-hearted, while reclamation work by mining companies in protected areas is poorly monitored.

In some provinces, notably Riau, police investigations have shown that logging companies have somehow managed to obtain licences from the local authorities to cut down trees in protected rainforests.

Environmentalists charge that approximately 126,000 cu m of illegal timber is exported to Malaysia every month, while hundreds more cubic metres are allegedly supplied to local plywood industries and pulp mills owned by the subsidiaries of local conglomerates.

The social and environmental impact is already being felt. In recent months, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has joined local non-governmental organisations in blaming rapid deforestation for many of the floods and landslides that have hit the country. The fact that Indonesia is also believed to be the world's third-largest producer of carbon emissions, largely due to forest fires, has also damaged the country's environmental reputation.

The inability of the authorities to rein in the loggers has been variously ascribed to a shortage of forestry officials, collusion between police and logging companies, and corrupt judges.

There is also a lack of cooperation between government departments. In the Adelin case, Forestry Minister Kaban submitted a letter to the police stating that Adelin's activities did not amount to a crime but were an administrative error. This letter was later used by the defence team during the trial.

Minister Kaban has a chequered record, sometimes urging tough action against officials he regards as not doing enough to stamp out deforestation, while at other times incurring the wrath of environmentalists by acting in ways that seem to undermine these efforts.

Meanwhile, legislators are at loggerheads with the Forestry Ministry over the issue of enforcement. Indeed, the problem has become so bad that in mid-October, Mr Aziz Syamsuddin, chairman of the House's working committee charged with investigating illegal logging, described the government and legislators as being locked in a 'battle of egos'.

Dealing with these issues will not be easy. The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has suggested that the government set up a special court to hear environment-related cases, presumably as a means of side-stepping corrupt provincial-level courts, while the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has pointed to the need to remove ambiguous policies and conflicting laws.

In the meantime, the manhunt for Adelin is likely to cast a long shadow over the Bali meeting.

'We cannot plunder our forests and at the same time beg for money to protect these same forests,' noted the influential Jakarta Post in a recent editorial. 'That would bring shame on us all.'

bruceg@sph.com.sg

'Mata jeli' is an Indonesian expression meaning 'sharp eyes' or 'the all-seeing eye'.

INSIDE JOB?

The local media has had a field day, reporting that police are trying to find out why Adelin was released on the basis of an executive order dated Nov 1, when the court did not hand down its judgment until Nov 5.


edited:22/01/2008
uploaded:22/01/2008