Jakarta – A former military officer in charge of distributing rice in Jakarta has admitted to syphoning off half of the food grain for profit as prices soared beyond the reach of the poor, reports said Thursday.

Ahmad Zawawi, former head of the Jakarta National Logistics Agency (Dolog), had confessed under questioning that he was involved in the massive diversion over a period of five months, the head of the Jakarta police economic detectives Lieutenant Colonel Saut Usman Nasution said.

Nasution, speaking after Zawawi had been grilled for eight hours on Tuesday, said the official had confessed to receiving 5,000 metric tonnes of rice daily to distribute in the capital, but that only some 2,000 to 2,500 tonnes were actually handed out.

"The remainder was sold illegally to Zawawi's close associates and other rice distributors, using fake delivery orders," Nasution was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post. Nasution added the illegal practices caused rice prices to soar and enabled rice hoarders to sell the valued commodity for huge profits, the report said.

Zawawi was asked to supply documents to support his confession which showed that he had in fact diverted some 465,000 tonnes as of early this month or enough to feed the city for three months.

The police on Monday named Zawawi, 56, a retired army colonel, as a suspect, meaning that he could be tried on criminal charges for involvement in the manipulation of the rice supply. Last week he was called in only as a witness following the arrest of 15 rice distributors for their alleged involvement in rice-trading with fake delivery orders.

Zawawi was also a witness in a case involvingr an illicit attempt to export 1,900 tonnes of rice to the Malaysian port of Kuching. Police had seized that rice from five vessels and several trucks and containers at Jakarta's Sunda Kelapa Port. He failed to show up for further questioning on Wednesday, and his lawyers claimed he was too ill, the Post said.