Police Remove Officers in Central Kalimantan
Tuesday, 29 September, 2009 | 17:02 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Several senior police officers in Kalimantan have been removed from their post for ongoing illegal logging in their jurisdiction, the national police informed on Tuesday.

The National Police Chief Bambang Danuri, who has been dragged into the anti-graft commission controversy said on Tuesday in an inspection in East Kalimantan Province, that he has replace the Chief of Central Kalimantan Police Brigadier General Syamsuridzal and removed several chiefs at the lower units below the provincial police.

“I have replace the Central Kalimantan Police Chief. There was ignorance on illegal logging in the province, everyday there were timber-loaded cargo boats leave the region,” General Bambang said at Sepinggan Airport in Balikpapan.

Police chiefs from several regency-level police headquarters (one level below the provincial police) were also sacked, General Bambang said.

Bambang was in the province to inspect a haul of around 17,000 logs of timber from illegal logging operation in Paser Regency in East Kalimantan.

Two officials from the forestry office in Paser Regency have been named suspects by the police, while two timber contractors from PT Anugerah Abadi Multi Usaha and CV Sukses Abadi were currently on the run.

SG WIBISONO