Customs office in hot seat over disappearance of 14 containers
Customs office in hot seat over disappearance of 14 containers
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Three political parties have threatened to mobilize thousands of
their supporters to storm the Cirebon customs and excise office
(BC) in West Java following the disappearance of 14 containers
with smuggled luxury cars and electronic goods inside.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan),
the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Justice and Unity
Party (PKP) -- all based in Cirebon -- said they would occupy the
local customs office if the matter could not immediately be
solved.
In a response to the threat, the customs and excise office
said on Tuesday that barbed wire would be installed at its
entrance gate and riot police would be deployed to guard the
building.
"We have anticipated the threat by coordinating with the
Cirebon city police to step up surveillance," said Tri Hartono, a
spokesman for the office.
Pressure also came from the city's legislative council (DPRD),
which plans to summon head of the customs and excise office
Tarsiwan, who is on pilgrimage in Mecca, and the local police
chief, to clarify the disappearance of the 14 illegal containers.
The containers, with luxury sedans and electronic goods
inside, were part of 19 others seized at Cirebon's seaport. They
had been smuggled aboard the Panama-flagged MV Santosa Jaya ship
from Singapore on Jan. 10, 2002.
The smuggling caused a total of Rp 20.5 billion in losses to
the state.
Two of the missing containers had four luxury sedans inside
with different brand names -- Jaguar Sport, Land Cruiser,
Mercedes Benz S-320 and S-280. The cars are worth at least Rp 3.5
billion in total.
The remaining 17 containers had electronic merchandise with
various brand names like Toshiba and Aiwa. Each was valued at
approximately Rp 1 billion.
"We will occupy the customs and excise office should the case
not be dealt with seriously within three days. It has been
handled for more than one month now but nobody has been named as
a suspect," leader of the Cirebon branch of PDI Perjuangan
Suryana told a media conference on Monday.
Suryana, who also heads the city's DPRD, was accompanied in
the media conference by local PKB leader Haris Sutamin and local
PKB chairman Enang Iman Gana.
"We are not playing games .... If the law's supremacy does not
take effect, the people's justice will speak," Suryana asserted.
He said the report on the disappearance of the 14 containers
was revealed when two DPRD teams separately visited the seaport
and found that the containers were not there despite the absence
of proper documentation.
The local customs office and police should be held responsible
for the smuggling, he added.
Customs and Excise director general Permana Agung, who visited
the seaport on Jan. 21, had instructed his subordinates in
Cirebon to hold the illegal containers until the suspects were
identified.
Meanwhile, Cirebon Police chief Sr. Comr. Rukmana stated that
little could be done by his staff in the investigation of the
case, as the customs and excise office was closed to them.
"The police have encountered difficulties in the investigation
because the custom and excise office has not cooperated with us,"
he told The Jakarta Post.
Apart from that, customs and excise matters were nothing to do
with the police, he added.
Mustajab, who serves as acting head of the customs and excise
office as Tarsiwan is on pilgrimage in Mecca, refused to respond
to the mounting pressure. "No comment," he shouted.