Experts warn of rifts in border demarcation

Experts warn of rifts in border demarcation

JAKARTA (JP): Survey and mapping experts warned on Sunday that
border issues could trigger disputes among the country's
regencies and provinces ahead of the implementation of Law No.
22/1999 on Regional Autonomy in January 2001.

"Mapping the exact borders for all 349 regencies and the 27
provinces is a great and daunting task... since it will certainly
affect the natural resources, survey rights and revenues
belonging to or collected by each regency and province," Klass
Villanueva, deputy chief for surveying of the Coordinating Agency
for National Surveying and Charting (Bakosurtanal), told The
Jakarta Post.

Border issues at sea and on land were never much of the
problem in the past, he said.

"But now several cases have emerged, such as the ongoing
dispute concerning Berhala island in Riau. Riau's neighboring
province of Jambi claims that historically the island is theirs.
The island happens to be a prospective tourist resort," Klass
said.

Demarcation issues will also become crucial for large
companies conducting offshore exploration, oil drilling and
fishing as well for companies involved in various onshore
economic activities, he said.

"Mapping will later determine which territory belongs to which
regency or province and to whom the companies will pay their
taxes," Klass said.

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world and
has a maritime zone consisting of about 7.9 million square
kilometers and a coastline extending to some 89,000 kilometers,
while the total land area of the country is about 1.9 million
square kilometers.

Parluhutan Manurung, the Agency's Global Positioning System
(GPS) and Geomatic specialist, said that Law No. 22/1999 on
Regional Autonomy clearly stated that the maritime territory of
each regency would extend four miles (6.4 kilometers) from the
shore while the relevant province's maritime zone would extend
for the next eight miles (12.9 kilometers). The remaining
Indonesian waters, outside of provincial and regency waters, are
to come under the jurisdiction of the central government.

"Such an arrangement certainly creates a complex problem. How
can we possibly demarcate a sea? Unlike land borders, maritime
borders are an 'illusion'. Fishermen from Madura usually venture
up into South Sulawesi waters. If they do that, is it breaching
the rules?

"Many technical regulations must be put into effect and the
public must be informed about them. And the mapping process
itself will be complicated and expensive," he added.

A one-day maritime mapping operation in a particular area
needs at least US$5,000, Klass said. "That only covers the cost
of a special echo-sounding ship complete with all the equipment
required to measure temperature, currents and position. Imagine
how much we have to spend to survey all of the country's waters,"
he said.

The only available survey ship is owned by the National
Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Klass said.

"By the middle of 2001, we will have completed land surveys
for Java, Bali, Lombok and Nusa Tenggara on a scale of 1:25,000.
As for maritime areas, it will take quite sometime."

He added that inadequate government regulations had slowed
down the mapping process.

Parluhutan blamed the sluggish mapping process partly on the
Indonesian Military (TNI).

"The military still thinks of maps as something to be kept
secret whereas satellites and computer technology now allow us to
access maps for any place on the surface of the earth,"
Parluhutan said. (edt)