EU, U.S. report Malaysian businessmen in illegal logging in Indonesia
June 05, 2007
JAKARTA (Antara): European Union (EU) and United States representatives at a G-8 meeting on illegal logging in Berlin, Germany, have reported that a number of Malaysian businessmen were involved in illegal logging in Kalimantan and Papua, an Indonesian delegate to the conference said.
The EU and US representatives mentioned their discovery at the G-8 meeting on June 5 in the presence of Yusuf Faishal, chairman of the Indonesian House of Representatives Commission IV who was representing Indonesia, according to a press statementissued by the House Commission on Tuesday.
Yusuf said Ana Maria Gomes, a member of the European Parliament who was also former Portuguese Ambassador to Indonesia in 1999-2003 told the meeting she found some Malaysian businessmen engaged in illegal logging in Kalimantan when she was making a working visit to Kalimantan in 2003.
The atmosphere at the meeting became rather tense as the Malaysian deputy plantation minister who represented his country categorically denied Gomes’s statement, Yusuf said.
A representative of the US environmental watchdog attending the meeting also said Malaysian businessmen had taken part in illegal logging activity in Indonesia. The logs were exported to China, he said.
Yusuf said the House’s Commission IV was planning to invite the Malaysian Ambassador in Jakarta to a discussion on the issue.(***)
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/
