Australian union bans RI ships

Australian union bans RI ships

MELBOURNE (Reuter): Australia's powerful Maritime Union yesterday launched rolling bans on Indonesian shipping to protest against the arrest of Indonesian labor leaders and Canberra's "failure" to press Jakarta on human rights.

The lightning bans, called at short notice and designed to hold up ships for 24 hours, could apply on an irregular basis to all types of commodity exports to Indonesia, the union said.

Australia's nearest Asian neighbor bought A$2.4 billion (US$1.9 billion) worth of Australian commodities in 1995, covering grains, minerals, livestock and refined petroleum.

"The bans are to protest against the recent arrests of independent labor leaders Muchtar Pakpahan and Dita Sari and the continuing repression following the July riots in Jakarta," the union said in a statement.

The bans are also a response to Australian Prime Minister John Howard's failure in Jakarta this week to press Indonesia on the issue of human rights and democracy, the union said.

During his three-day Indonesian visit ended yesterday, Howard reaffirmed Australia's commitment to close ties.

The first ship to be hit by the rolling bans is to be the Bogasari Empat, due to arrive in Fremantle on Australia's west coast late yesterday to load 32,500 tons of wheat.

The ship will load wheat as scheduled but will be delayed for 24 hours before being able to depart, union assistant secretary Vic Slater told Reuters.

"It delays things," he said of the bans. "In terms of the economy, I don't think it has any effect on the Australian economy....It just buggers (frustrates) up shipping lines."

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In Jakarta, Husein Aminuddin, an executive of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said yesterday that the bans were insignificant because they were for such a short period.

He said he was also confident that Canberra would not allow the bans to disrupt Australia's economy.

"I don't think Australia would want to 'commit suicide' by allowing such bans to interfere with its economic ties with other countries including Indonesia... Besides, Australia is now striving to improve its financial condition," he told The Jakarta Post.

Similarly, former ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian said the impact of the bans would be insignificant and would not last long.

Businessman Sofyan Wanandi said this was not the first time the bans had occurred in Australia. "In the past, such bans proved to have little impact," he said.

Meanwhile, former foreign minister Mochtar Kusuma-atmadja said the bans were an internal affair of Australia, and Jakarta should "just let them be".

Pakpahan, leader of the Indonesian Labor Welfare Union (SBSI), has been charged with subversion in connection with riots that rocked the Indonesian capital on July 27. The crime of subversion is punishable by death.

Labor activist Dita Sari was arrested before the July 27 riots over a labor strike in Surabaya, East Java.

The Australian rolling bans are in line with a worldwide campaign against Pakpahan's arrest by the International Transport Workers' Federation, which represents more than five million workers in 120 countries, the Maritime Union said.

The Maritime Union, which boasts of 10,000 members working around Australia as seamen and waterside workers, has a history of taking industrial action over events in Indonesia.

In Sydney, analysts said yesterday the bans threaten to hit A$2.4 billion worth of Australian commodity exports covering wheat, refined petroleum, cotton, livestock, aluminum and iron and steel.

First commodities to be held up by 24-hour bans will be wheat and livestock, while cotton will also be especially hard-hit, analysts said yesterday.

Australia's biggest single disclosed export to Indonesia is refined petroleum and oils, worth A$282 million in 1995.

Petroleum ranks second to a confidential catch-all category for Australian exports, worth more than A$300 million last year and, analysts say, dominated by wheat.

But cotton will be a clear casualty of protracted bans.

Indonesia, now Australia's largest customer for cotton after overtaking Japan in recent years, last year imported A$205 million worth of the Australian product.

Cotton ranked after petroleum as Australia's second-biggest disclosed export item to Indonesia. And Australian cotton is now in its peak shipping period.

The bans would affect Australia's cotton export performance, said Gordon Cherry, general manager of Cotton Trading Corp.

"Most cotton mills these days operate very much on hand-to- mouth," he told Reuters.

"They're not holding stock. So yes it does disrupt their supply and because supply has to be timely that reflects badly on our reputation as a shipper," he said.

"It's very frustrating that these things happen, particularly when we're in a peak shipping period for cotton," Cherry said.

Australia's peak cotton shipping period runs from April to September. August/September have been very big months for Australia this year because of the late season, Cherry said. Livestock follows cotton on Australia's export list.

With about A$157 million worth exported to Indonesia last year, Indonesia is Australia's leading customer for livestock in both volume and value terms.

Lloyd Beeby, international livestock manager for the Australian Meat and Livestock Corp, declined to comment on the union bans. "We keep well and truly out of that," he said. He also would not speculate on the impact of union bans on the trade.

But Australia's livestock exports to Indonesia have become so big that a fleet of more than 30 ships continually services the trade.

A ship would be loading for export to Indonesia somewhere in Australia almost every day, Beeby said.

He was unable to say specifically which ship was scheduled to be next off the rank.

BHP also exports steel to Indonesia. This item falls into the confidential items category. (pwn/13)