By: Arifin *)
Indonesia National Police (Polri) Chief, General Badrodin Haiti, has said the police have named two foreign companies as suspects in forest and land fires, reported antaranews.com. The suspects were individuals and corporations.“There are twelve companies and 209 individuals named as suspects”, Said Badrodin during a press conference at the Coordinating Ministry for Politics ,Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat , Central Jakarta , Monday (12/10/2015 ) , cited detiknews.com. According to Indonesia National Police Chief, one of the two foreign companies comes from Malaysia, the other one being from China. While Singapore is still under investigation.“Some from those companies have range sphere in farm, and the other one has sphere in Industrial Forest (HTI)”, Badrodin added.Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), Henri Subagiyo, said that the company’s action against perpetrators of forest and land fires had indeed been implemented, cited BBC Indonesia.In an interview with the BBC Indonesia, Rebecca Henschke, in Central Kalimantan, Experts Peat, Suwido Hester Limin said, its clearly which is the company has a role in forest fires cases that related to the practice of draining peatlands.Previously, The National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) chief Comr. Gen. Anang Iskandar told 24 cases are currently under investigation, while 57 cases have been handed over to the prosecutor’s office. He added that the police would continue to investigate all of the fire-related cases in cooperation with other government institutions as sanctions would be given to companies that are proven to be guilty. As quoted thejakartapost.com.As reported by kompas.com, the alleged who burning forests and the land will be charged under Article 108 of Law No. 32 of 2009 on the Conservation and Management of the Environment, with sentences up to 10 years and a maximum fines up to IDR10billion.In addition to the criminal law, the Minister of Forestry and Environment, Siti Nurbaya, said already seeking administrative sanctions for the companies who involved in forest and land fires.Administrative sanctions has three form , namely forced termination of activities, freeze business licenses, up to revocation of business licenses, cited BBC Indonesia.
*) The Author is Jakarta Regional Contributor