Extortion rife at Lampung port

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)