Badriah and Erwin Dariyanto, Jakarta – Around 50 major illegal loggers and thousands of small illegal loggers are still free in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China.

"The Illegal logging business network is actually there," said Malam Sabat Kaban, Forestry Minister, after meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the vice presidential office yesterday (12/9).

According to him, those outlawed have been included in the list of people prevented from going abroad, sent by Indonesian National Police to the Directorate General of Immigration at the Justice and Human Rights Department.

During the meeting, the vice president asked about the number of illegal logger suspects in the list of wanted people which has been distributed by the Forestry Department.

Kaban explained, the illegal loggers use false identities so they are difficult to catch. "Sometimes a person can have three names and own three passports."

Illegal loggers who have forest concession rights, such as Adelin Lis, who was captured in Beijing, China last Friday, are easier to catch.

Adelin, Director of PT Inata Timber and PT Keang Nam, is now being interviewed at North Sumatra Regional Police in Medan after escaping to China in February. Adelin is an illegal logger suspect in Mandailing Natal, suspected of causing the state to suffer a loss of Rp230 trillion.

Other illegal loggers who have been captured include Ai Peng in Riau and Mulyadi.

However, according to Kaban, A Seng in Medan has not been arrested. "There are two people named A Seng, both haven't been arrested."

Kaban is targeting that fugitives in Jambi and Kalimantan must be captured this year. He also claimed there are drastic declines up to 80 percent of the log shipping volume and log stealing frequency, especially in Kalimantan.

At almost every main river on the island, there is no more open log shipping. It's a similar situation downstream and upstream of Batanghari River in Jambi and Gaung River in Siak.