Indonesia shuffles police chief after logging case

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The police chief in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province has been moved to Jakarta following the arrest last week of three policemen in the area in a case involving illegal logging, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

Indonesia has suffered from rapid deforestation, partly due to rampant illegal logging. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to tackle the problem as part of his campaign to crack down on corruption.

"The national police chief hopes there will be no more illegal logging with the shuffle" of the West Kalimantan police chief, police spokesman Major General Abubakar Nataprawira told Reuters.

Three police officials in West Kalimantan's Ketapang district were arrested last week in a case involving illegal logging.

Nataprawira said the transfer of West Kalimantan police chief Brigadier General Zainal Abidin Ishak to Jakarta was linked to the case, but the police chief himself was not directly involved in illegal logging.

The spokesman said Ishak was transferred to the staff at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta and his replacement would take over in the next day or so.

(Reporting by Telly Nathalia; Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Sara Webb and Jerry Norton)