Indonesia questions claims over pirate attacks in its waters<\/p>\n
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A senior government official objected on Wednesday to accusations
\nthat Indonesia's territorial waters were rife with piracy.<\/p>\n
Tjuk Sukardiman, director general of maritime at the
\nCommunication Ministry, complained that piracy reports compiled
\nby the London-based International Marine Organization (IMO)
\ntended to lump all theft at sea under the term piracy.<\/p>\n
The IMO claimed that a total of 404 pirate cases were recorded
\nworldwide in 2002, of which 144 reportedly occurred in Southeast
\nAsian sea waters with 109 of these recorded in Indonesian waters
\n- making it the most piracy-prone area in the world.<\/p>\n
By comparison, IMO recorded only 17 cases of piracy in
\nMalaysian waters, 12 cases in the Philippines' and five cases in
\nThailand's.<\/p>\n
A total of 103 cases of piracy occurred in international
\nwaters during the first three months of this year (January-
\nMarch), according to the IMO's data, with 28 of the cases taking
\nplace in Indonesia's territorial waters.<\/p>\n
But Sukardiman argued that the numbers issued by the IMO are
\nnot correct, because they fail to differentiate between piracy
\ncases and robbery cases on-board the ships.<\/p>\n
Indonesian antipiracy officials claim that many of the so-
\ncalled cases of piracy in their waters are in fact scams carried
\nout between ship owners and organized gangs to claim insurance on
\ncargos and vessels.<\/p>\n
\"Not all cases of thefts and robberies on-board ships can be
\ncategorized as pirate activity,\" the state-run Antara news agency
\nquoted Sukardiman as saying. \"The number of statistics released
\nby the IMO is too high.\"<\/p>\n
A senior official earlier this week urged the government to
\nintensify its control over 20 islets amid fears they are being
\nused as pirate bases.<\/p>\n
Son Diamar, an expert on maritime affairs at the national
\ndevelopment planning, said that the islets may not feature in
\ndispute claims with neighboring countries but are strategically
\npositioned as pirate bases.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia has thousands of remote and uninhabited islands and
\nit is the government's duty to exercise its authority on those
\nislets at all times,\" Diamar said.<\/p>\n
Diamar did not provide the names of the islets but said they
\nwere located close to Indonesia's neighboring countries.<\/p>\n
The latest catographic survey found that there are more than
\n17,508 islands in Indonesia but only 5,707 have been named.<\/p>\n
Diamar said the ownership of four islands were currently being
\ndisputed by East Timor, the Philippines and Singapore.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-questions-claims-over-pirate-attacks-in-its-waters-1447893297",
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