Soeharto's Family Owns 4.3 Million Hectares of Forest
1/2/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Soeharto's Family Owns 4.3 Million Hectares of Forest
Source: CNN
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 1/2/99
JAKARTA (Jan. 2) XINHUA - Indonesian former president Soeharto's family
controls at least 4.3 million hectares of forest concessions in the
country, a senior official said.
The 4.3 million hectares of forest were owned by the Soeharto family
through their stakes in 65 timber companies, local leading newspapers
Saturday quoted Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution as
saying.
"The ownership of those timber companies is in the names of Soeharto's
children, grand-children, brother and his sons-in-low and daughter-in-low.
There is no stake in either Soeharto's name or Ibu Thien's (Soeharto's
late wife) name," the minister told the ministry's year-end media briefing
on Thursday.
He said the estimate of the size of the forest areas controlled by the
Soeharto family was based on the percentage of their shares in the 65
timber companies.
The family has stakes of between 10 percent and 100 percent in the 65
companies.
Director General of Forest utilization Waskito Soerjodibroto said earlier
the ministry's investigator had discovered that 9.4 million hectares of
the country's forests and plantations were owned or controlled by former
president Soeharto, his family and close associates.
"The remaining 5.1 million hectares were controlled by Soeharto's cronies
through shares held in various companies," Muslimin said.
He said his ministry found a strong indication that those properties were
acquired by the Soeharto family and their cronies through corruptive,
collusive and nepotistic (KK practices.