Govt urged to relocate Aceh victims from Leuser

A green group is urging thousands of displaced people from Aceh be moved away from Gunung Leuser National Park in Langkat regency, North Sumatra, to prevent the environmental destruction of the protected park.

Leuser International Foundation, a non-governmental organization, warns the people, who have been living within the park for at least 10 years, after being displaced from their homes by conflicts, threaten the sustainability of the park.

The group's rehabilitation officer, Nizar Tarigan, said the displaced people were responsible for much of the illegal logging within the park.

"Every year, more and more of the park is destroyed. How can it not get worse since the displaced people are building homes within the park and most of them depend on illegal logging for money?" Nizar told The Jakarta Post.

He said the displaced had built comfortable lives for themselves in the park, and would likely resist efforts to move them.

Gunung Leuser covers 2.5 million hectares, stretching from Aceh and North Sumatra. According to some estimates, 30 percent of the park's territory, including 22,000 hectares in Langkat regency, have been damaged.

Nizar said the foundation had been trying since 2002 to move the people away from the park, but only 264 families had so far agreed to be relocated to Pekanbaru, Riau province.

He said security authorities needed to move in and forcibly remove the remaining families from the national park.

"Most of the displaced people living in the park have received money from the government to help them settle outside of the park, but they have not moved and the law is doing nothing about it," Nizar said.

He said weak law enforcement allowed illegal loggers to operate freely in Gunung Leuser.

In addition to those displaced by the Aceh conflict, there are around 700 squatters from around North Sumatra involved in illegal logging in the park.

When contacted for confirmation on Tuesday, Langkat Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anang Syarief said the police could not take action on its own against the displaced people and illegal squatters in the park.

He acknowledged illegal logging was occurring in Gunung Leuser but said it was not on a large scale.

He said several illegal loggers had been arrested in the park.

Anang said the Coordinating Ministry for the Public Welfare was aware of the problem with the displaced people, but had yet to take any action on the matter.

He said there was little the police could do without causing unrest.

"We once forced the displaced people out of the park but they resisted. In order to cause more problems, we had to backtrack," Anang said.