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Police ready to send first forest fire case to court

Jakarta Globe - September 21, 2015

How Indonesian forest law is being used against poor people – Jakarta Post. August 16, 2015
Law enforcement 'weak' against big business – Jakarta Post. April 4, 2015
Subsidies to industries that cause deforestation worth 100 times more than aid to prevent it – The Guardian. March 31, 2015
Another military figure arrested for illegal logging – Jakarta Post. March 18, 2015
Illegal logging rampant in spite of government initiatives – Jakarta Post. February 18, 2015

Jakarta – Indonesian police are expediting a criminal investigation into one of 10 companies charged so far with starting forest fires that have generated choking haze across vast swaths of Sumatra and reached as far as Singapore.

A source at the police identified the company in question as Bumi Mekar Hijau, a South Sumatra-based supplier to Singapore-listed Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).

Under the charges being brought by investigators, company executives could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of deliberately setting the fires to clear forested land for planting.

"Next week we'll be ready to submit the case [to prosecutors]," the source told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Hopefully the prosecutors can deem [all the evidence] sufficient so we can proceed to investigating other companies that have also burned forests."

Bumi Mekar Hijau was earlier this year the subject of a civil suit filed by the government over fires inside its concession last year. A court in South Sumatra threw out the case in February.

In the current investigation, police have charged an unnamed executive from the company with violating a prohibition on slash-and-burn forest clearing.

An APP spokesman told Singapore's Straits Times newspaper that it was "not aware of any new formal police charges against any of our suppliers at this time" and maintained that APP had operated a "zero burning" policy in its supply chain since 1996.

Police have charged 10 companies in Sumatra and Kalimantan along with 127 individuals for slash-and-burn practices, which are believed to be behind the thick haze that has blanketed parts of the country as well as Singapore and Malaysia, bringing air quality indexes in all three countries to unhealthy levels.

The companies face fines of up to Rp 10 billion ($694,000) each, while the suspects face jail time of up to 10 years under the environmental protection and forestry laws. The companies also face having their permits revoked by the government.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) called on Sunday for the government to employ some of the nation's best lawyers to prosecute these cases, saying they could serve as a precedent for future prosecutions and lawsuits against other companies.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said on Sunday that the government was investigating nearly 300 companies for alleged slash-and-burn practices.

The ministry has deployed at least 200 officers to investigate firms with concessions on which fires had been detected, suspecting them of using the slash-and-burn method of clearing land. The minister promised to publish a list of violators before the end of the year.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-ready-send-first-forest-fire-case-court/.