Bob Hasan, Timber Baron, Gets 'Environment Prize'

Indonesia - On June 5, World Environment Day, Environment Minister Sarwano Kusumaatmadja awarded the prestigious Indonesian environment prize - the Kalpataru - to President Suharto's right-hand man, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan. Past winners of the Kalpataru include the radical journalist and academic George Aditjondro, who now lives in exile in Australia.

It is hard to imagine a less deserving recipient of this prize than Bob Hasan. Best known as Indonesia's top timber tycoon - controlling numerous trade associations in the forestry industry - Hasan has been playing an increasingly prominent role in the country's strategic business affairs. Under his reign, Indonesia's forests have been plundered mercilessly by a handful of well-connected businessmen, with total disregard for the environment and the rights of indigenous forest-dwelling communities.

Hasan began his assault on the forests in 1972 when, on the recommendation of friends in the military, he was given a 10-percent stake in the local subsidiary of a US-based logging company, Georgia Pacific. He soon acquired the remaining 90 percent of the company and went on to build his Kalimanis timber empire. In the 1980s, he founded APKINDO, the state-sanctioned cartel that controls Indonesia's plywood exports.

On several occasions, Hasan has attempted to counter critics at home and abroad by launching aggressive campaigns to convince the world that Indonesian forests are being well-managed by the timber industry's "capable" hands. Such campaigns have organized "seminars" in consumer countries and advertised in European and US mass media. (One UK television advertisement was withdrawn after environmental organizations complained that it was misleading.

Hasan also has accused various foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have criticized destructive logging practices and violations of indigenous rights, of being stooges of their home countries' timber producers, who are trying to garner a larger share of world markets.

The Indonesian Environment Forum, WALHI, is currently taking the Indonesian president to court for approving a loan of Rp 250 billion (more than $100 million) from state reforestation funds to help build Hasan's PT Kiani Kertas paper and pulp plant in East Kalimantan. The funds were transferred in December by presidential decree. This represents almost half the government's total 1996 budget for reforestation funds.

Hasan has been extending his influence to other strategic areas of the Indonesian economy. In February, he took over as chairman of Astra International, a car-building conglomerate. He also brokered the deal to settle the squabble over a notorious gold field in Busang, giving US-based Freeport McMoran a controlling share of the joint venture, while boosting his own 5 percent stake in the latter company. The deal ultimately collapsed when it was revealed that Bre-X personnel had secretly salted the soil samples with gold flakes.

Hasan has been a friend of the president for more than 40 years, and his role as Suharto's closest confidant has increased since the death of the leader's wife.

At least one Indonesian NGO is convinced that Hasan received the Kalpataru to counter publicity generated by the recent award of the US Goldman Environmental Prize - the "environmental Nobel Prize" - to Loir Botor Dingit, of the Bentian Dayak people of East Kalimantan.

There has been a long-running dispute between the Bentian and Hasan's logging company PT Kalhold Utama. The Bentian are skilled agro-foresters, who have sustainably managed their traditional lands for generations. Hasan's company has destroyed Bentian gardens, fruit trees, forest resources and ancestral graves in order to establish a timber plantation. Authorities have intimidated indigenous landowners, forcing some to hand over their land. The villagers of Jelmu Sibak in Kutai district have appealed to the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission to protect their lands and their livelihoods from the likes of Bob Hasan and his profit-hungry loggers.

- from Down to Earth, the newsletter of the Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia, 59 Athenlay Road, London SE15 3EN, England: dte@gn.apc.org or dtecampaign@gn.apc.org, 044-150-8471413, tel/fax 044-171-7327984.

What You Can Do: To express your views to the Indonesian government, contact Sarwono Kusumaatmadja, Ministry of the Environment, Jl Medan Merdeka Barat No 15, Jakarta 10220, Indonesia.