Australia earns Indonesia's ire over Timor fisherman

Australia earns Indonesia's ire over Timor fisherman

SYDNEY (DPA): Indonesia complained to Australia on Friday over
the treatment of a Timorese fishermen who survived at sea for
nearly a month only to be jailed after a cyclone blew his
crippled craft ashore in a remote part of the Northern Territory.

Australian authorities have refused an official request for
48-year-old David Luan to be moved from a cell in Berimah Prison
to a ward at the Royal Darwin Hospital where he can be properly
cared for after living on not much more than seaweed for almost a
month.

Luan's outrigger drifted more than 1,000 kilometers after its
outboard motor broke down.

Gale force winds whipped up by Cyclone Steve drove him ashore
in the Coburg Peninsula where park rangers found him famished,
dehydrated and disoriented.

The rangers described Luan's battle against the elements as a
"remarkable story of survival" and classed him as seafarer in
distress rather than an illegal immigrant.

But Luan was put in the slammer to await his repatriation to
Indonesia and a reunion with his family in Namfalus, near Kupang,
on the island of Timor.

"He is not a criminal. He is supposed to be treated properly,"
angry Indonesian Vice Consul Arif Soepalal told Australia's AAP.

Northern Territory Legal Aid director Richard Coates was even
more critical of the attitude of the Australian authorities,
saying it was outrageous that Luan should be jailed when he was
guilty of no crime.

"We go to enormous efforts to save round-the-world yacht
people and here's someone from our nearest neighbor who is washed
up here...It's a bit of a shameful episode," Coates said.

He noted that two years ago English yachtsman Tony Bullimore
was piped ashore in Perth after being saved at enormous expense
by the Australian navy.

Three years ago, Frenchwoman Isabelle Autissier, another
wealthy round-the-world sailor, was rescued from the sea at a
cost of more than A$1 million (US$600,000).

Luan, in contrast, saved himself but was not feted when he
arrived in Darwin. Instead, the impoverished but resourceful
fisherman was thrown in jail to await what amounts to
extradition.