29 Mar 2005

Army officer charged with illegal logging in Indonesian province of Papua

7:15 am on 29 March 2005

Police in the Indonesian province of Papua have charged an army officer with illegal logging.

A military spokesman named the man as Captain Kaspar, from the Sorong area.

The arrest brings the number of people detained for illegal logging in the province this year to 70, including four police officers and nine Malaysian citizens.

Captain Kaspar is the only known military suspect to be in custody.

The government intensified a crackdown on loggers last month after environmental groups published a report detailing a timber smuggling business worth almost a billion US dollars annually in Papua.