Two policemen arrested for people-smuggling<\/p>\n
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
National Police Chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro said on Friday
\nthat two police brigadiers in Riau had been arrested for
\nillegally helping Middle Eastern boatpeople.<\/p>\n
The police are also tracking down another four people they
\nbelieve are the masterminds behind people-smuggling throughout
\nIndonesia, he said.<\/p>\n
\"The Riau police chief has told me the two brigadiers were
\ninvolved (in illegally helping boatpeople),\" he told journalists
\nafter meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri.<\/p>\n
He said the two detained police officers had been escorting
\nthe illegal migrants and were not part of the syndicate.<\/p>\n
Bimantoro rejected survivors' claims that police had forced
\nthe mostly Iraqi refugees at gunpoint to board the vessel, which
\nsank in the Java Sea last Friday, killing over 374 of the 418 on
\nboard.<\/p>\n
The survivors' claims have sparked strong reactions from the
\nAustralian government. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has
\ndemanded that the Indonesian police investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
It had been reported earlier that the boat had sailed from
\nLampung in South Sumatra, but Lampung police chief Brig. Gen.
\nSugiri said the boat was likely to have set sail from Karang
\nBolong, in the western Java province of Banten.<\/p>\n
Bimantoro said that, of the four people still at large, two
\nwere Indonesian, one Malaysian and one Iraqi. \"We need
\ncoordination with other countries because it involves
\nforeigners.\"<\/p>\n
Bimantoro said that the arrival of illegal immigrants from
\nMiddle Eastern countries in Indonesian territories was arranged
\nby international syndicates.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has become a favorite transit point for boatpeople
\nheading for Australia and America, taking advantage of its vast
\nterritory and slack coastal supervision.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Australia government asked Indonesia to
\nextradite an Egyptian man believed to have arranged last week's
\ndisastrous journey of asylum-seekers.<\/p>\n
In a related development, four Indonesian people-smugglers
\nhave each been jailed for six years in Australia for bringing 231
\nasylum-seekers to the Australian territory of Christmas Island,
\nin the Indian Ocean, in June.<\/p>\n
The penalties were imposed on Thursday night by Judge Alton
\nJackson in the District Court in South Hedland, a coastal town in
\nWestern Australia's north-west.<\/p>\n
AFP reported that Dahlan, 40, Alimuddin Bin Binggala, 31,
\nAndiman, 33, and Yopi Koto, 21, all from Sulawesi, pleaded guilty
\nto a charge of intent to bring non-citizens to Australia
\nillegally.<\/p>\n
In Jakarta, about 100 asylum seekers--mostly from
\nIraq--demonstrated at the United Nations High Commissioner on
\nRefugees (UNHCR) offices, demanding better treatment.<\/p>\n
A minor incident occurred when security guards blocking their
\nentry to the office scuffled with the protesters. They were
\nasylum seekers accommodated in Bogor, south of Jakarta.<\/p>\n
They unfurled posters detailing their demands. One read:
\n\"Hurry... hurry help our children are waiting.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/two-policemen-arrested-for-people-smuggling-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}