Extortion rife at Lampung port

BANDAR LAMPUNG, Lampung: Deputy governor Suwardi Ramli promised Wednesday to punish Bakauheni port officials who extort money from Java-bound truck drivers.

"The illegal levies at Bakauheni must be quashed," Antara quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

The official was responding to press reports that port officials demand Rp 50,000 (US$21) from each truck driver who wants to get his truck ferried across to Merak, West Java without spending up to two days sitting in line at the Lapung port.

Thousands of Java-bound trucks have been backed up for as much as three kilometers over the past weeks while they wait for a spot on a ferry.

Port officials, rumor has it, have caused the traffic chaos for their personal benefit.

The contrived chaos has reportedly allowed street hoodlums to exhort anxious drivers. They prey on truck drivers in a hurry to cross the Sunda Strait.

Trucks carrying vegetables for sale in Java are easy targets for the crooked port officials, Antara said. (pan)