Harrison Ford accused of "harassing state institutions" about climate change

Indonesia threatened the actor with deportation after a confrontational interview

Published September 11, 2013 1:40PM (EDT)

If Harrison Ford hadn't already been planning to leave Indonesia yesterday, its forestry minister says he would have had him deported. The state official is outraged after Ford allegedly harassed him about illegal logging and climate change, the Guardian reports:

Ford appears to have witnessed illegal logging taking place in Sumatra's Tesso Nilo national park and asked Hasan why deforestation was occurring in protected areas while the guilty seemingly had free rein.

"He was emotional," Hasan said. "I can understand that this is the first time for this American to come here and see Tesso Nilo. It seems that what he wants to see is any perpetrators involved in the damage immediately arrested."

The minister said he told Ford that illegal logging was a complicated issue in Indonesia and required a more varied approach to stem it than simple force.

The actor, 71, was in the country conducting interviews for an episode of Showtime's Years of Living Dangerously, a documentary series premiering in April 2014. He's yet to comment on whether he was deliberately trying to provoke the minister.

In an earlier interview yesterday, Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, reportedly told Ford that the country plans to be strict in cracking down on illegal logging. Still, "There's no privilege for him although he is a great actor," said a presidential spokesman.


By Lindsay Abrams

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