Indonesian Loggers Called Terrorists

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November 5, 2003

Indonesian Loggers Called Terrorists

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

 

BUKIT LAWANG, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia's environment minister on

Wednesday likened illegal loggers to ``terrorists'' for rampant

deforestation blamed for a devastating flood on Sumatra island.

 

More than 200 people are either dead or missing after a flash flood on the

western Indonesian island swept away scores of dwellings, many of which

served as guesthouses for tourists visiting a famous orangutan reserve.

 

Rescuers with chain saws and bulldozers had pulled out 92 bodies by

Wednesday from debris -- mostly uprooted trees, logs, rocks and building

materials -- piled two stories high.

 

Families reported more than 150 people missing, the private Metro TV on

Wednesday quoted village chief Yusmaidah as saying. Officials cautioned that

some people who had left the area before the floods may appear on missing

lists, inflating the figure.

 

Environmentalists say unchecked logging in Indonesia, a sprawling

archipelago with 210 million inhabitants, disrupts the natural absorption

and flow of rainwater from the highlands, triggering floods and landslides

that sweep into the valleys.

 

Government officials admit that illegal felling in Leuser Park may have

blocked a waterway high in the mountains, causing a huge flash flood when

the logs collapsed Sunday night in Bukit Lawang, North Sumatra.

 

``These illegal loggers are like terrorists,'' Environment Minister Nabiel

Makarim said at the presidential palace in Jakarta.

 

He said the environment ministry has given instructions to clear the

protected forests of illegal loggers in Sumatra but ``it's extremely

difficult to prosecute them because we are dealing with corrupt officials

and business people.''

 

Also Wednesday, aid workers began distributing five tons of rice and

hundreds of packets of instant noodles to survivors.

 

Most of the victims were villagers -- many of them workers in the local

tourism industry and their families. Five of the dead were foreigners -- two

Germans, two Austrians and a Singaporean.

 

``I am very lucky that I found my wife and three children. My neighbor has

three relatives who disappeared,'' said M. Indra, the owner of a guesthouse.

 

Logging also has shrunk forests where endangered tigers, elephants and

orangutans live. Sumatra has several national parks that are home to

threatened animals.

 

Longgena Ginting, executive director of Walhi, Indonesia's largest

environmental group, said that up to 20 percent of Leuser National Park,

which overlooks Bukit Lawang, was deforested.

 

Corruption and poor law enforcement -- familiar complaints in Indonesia,

which is struggling to come to terms with democracy after 32 years of

dictatorship that ended in 1998 -- means the logging goes largely unchecked.

 

Bukit Lawang is surrounded by lush tropical rain forests. Upstream, however,

in the national park, loggers and construction workers have cut away large

swaths of the jungle while building a road into neighboring Aceh province.

 

On Wednesday, the Bahorok River was still raging through the village of

2,500 people.

 

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was deeply saddened to hear about

the floods and expressed deep sympathy to the government of Indonesia.

 

Tourism has been the mainstay of Bukit Lawang since the orangutan reserve

was established more than 20 years ago. The village was one of Sumatra's

most visited tourist resorts.