We hope that this letter will help to free Bpk. Bestari Raden who is still in police detention. He has now been moved from Kutacane (Southeast Aceh) to Tapaktuan (South Aceh), where he was detained three times during the year of 1999 and suffered inhumane treatment from the local police.

Southeast Aceh, where Bestari Raden was arrested on 23 March 2004, is one of the main land routes for the transport of illegal timber form Aceh to Medan (North Sumatra). Illegal logging and trade in illegal timber involves many members of the local elite in Southeast Aceh, where there is a history of rampant collusion and nepotism. If arrested, local timber barons and operators of illegal sawmills only only need to pay so-called “informal fines” to be set free again and continue with their illegal business, without ever being prosecuted according to proper legal procedures. One of these is the leader of the Golkar political party in the local assembly.

Meanwhile, the government of the Republic of Indonesia neglects its responsibility to ensure that Indonesia's tropical forests are managed sustainably. Despite all the aid which international donors have given to the Department of Forestry to combat illegal logging and promote sustainable forest management, Indonesia's forests are disappearing fast. Satellite images of Gunung Leuser National Park and the larger conservation area surrounding it, show that five new illegal logging roads were built in 2003. This brings the number of illegal logging roads in the area up to nearly twenty.

Illegal logging in Aceh has increased under martial law. Timber is transported along the traditional overland route via Southeast Aceh to the west and east coasts of Sumatra. From there, it is smuggled to China, Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, and Europe.

While the forestry minister makes a fuss about trans-border smuggling of timber from East and West Kalimantan to Malaysia, he makes no effort to stop the “bleeding” that illegal logging inflicts in the tropical forests of the Leuser ecosystem, as described above.

So far, the Department of Forestry has done nothing to free Bestari Raden, who at the time of his arrest was part of an official delegation directed by the forestry minister, backed by a letter of recommendation from the coordinating security minister and permission from the martial law administration in Aceh.

Furthermore, the forestry department broke its commitment to hold a press conference shortly after Bestari Raden's arrest. This stands in stark contrast with all the efforts undertaken by the ministry for the environment, such as public statements by the minister for the environment, Nabiel Makarim, questioning the facts and rationale behind the arrest of Bestari Raden, as well as his efforts to contact the head of the Indonesian police, Dai Bachtiar.

The forestry department has failed in its moral duty to publicly defend Bestari Raden, who has rendered many services to the department, such as his involvement in promoting the National Movement for Forest and Land Rehabilitation (GNRHL).

The Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare has also neglected his moral duty to defend Bestari Raden, and may even be seeking to benefit from this stigmatisation and criminalisation.

Best regards,

Hasjrul Junaid
SKEPHI (The Indonesian NGO Network For Forest Conservation)

Cell Nr. Indonesia #62-815-9260627
SKEPHI-office, tel/fax #62-21-7981766