Indonesian police stop Greenpeace forest stunt

Nov 26, 2009, 9:24 GMT

   Jakarta - Police on Indonesia's Sumatra island removed Thursday four Greenpeace activists who tied themselves to cranes at a paper mill for 27 hours to protest what they call forest destruction, the environmental group said.

   Police began taking action on Wednesday after 18 Greenpeace activists from 11 countries blocked the export facilities of the mill owned by Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas.

   Police were questioning the activists in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau in eastern Sumatra, Greenpeace said.

   Greenpeace urged Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other world leaders who were due to attend a climate change summit in Copenhagen to take immediate steps to halt forest and peatland destruction in the country.

   It said deforestation and peatland destruction accounted for the vast majority of Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions.

   'Our non-violent activities in Sumatra over last five weeks have shown world leaders that forest protection is an important piece of the solution if the world is to avert climate chaos,' said Von Hernandez, Greenpeace executive director for South-East Asia.

   Environmental groups said Indonesia is the world's third-largest polluter after China and the US, mainly as a result of the ongoing destruction of its forests and their peat soils.

   Globally, 1 million hectares of forests are destroyed every month - an area the size of a football pitch every 2 seconds - emitting so much carbon dioxide that deforestation is blamed for about 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.