Foreign sand smugglers to face RI justice

Foreign sand smugglers to face RI justice

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia will carry out further investigations into the seven
cargo vessels the Navy captured last week for trying to smuggle
goods into Singapore, says a Navy official.

"The smuggling case involving the seven ships, currently being
held by the Navy on Batam Island, will be handed over to the
minister of maritime development to be dealt with according to
the law," Rear Admiral Djoko Sumaryono, chief of the Navy's
Western Fleet, said during his field tour of the naval base on
the island on Friday.

During the tour, Djoko also questioned the crew members of the
vessels, including several Russians and Koreans, with questions
centering on the foiled sand smuggling.

The seven vessels --TB Olivia-V, TB Jasmine V, MV Prof.
Garjunov, MV Samsung Apollo, Vasco Da Gama, MV Lange Wapper and
MV Alexander Van Humbold-- were captured by several Indonesian
warships in a series of routine operations in Indonesian waters
on the strait since they failed to produce the necessary
documents to transport the thousands of tons of sand out of the
province.

Djoko said further that in line with President Megawati
Soekarnoputri's recent instruction, the Navy would fight all
forms of crime along the Malacca Straits, including those that
caused losses to the state.

Djoko had no comment when asked about the businessmen or
syndicates behind the smuggling.

Col. Adyaman A. S., chief of the Batam naval base, said the
Navy was monitoring seven other vessels which were allegedly
loading sand on the Riau archipelago without a permit from the
Indonesian government.

"Our ships are still lying in wait for the seven ships. The
ships are still loading sand and the will face the same fate as
the previous seven ships," he said.

Adyaman acknowledged that the Riau archipelago was quite prone
to sand theft since Singapore is in need of sand for its
reclamation project along its coast.

"Of a total 70 dredgers in the world, 54 are running
operations in the Malacca Straits. This means that Riau is the
largest sand quarrying operation in the world," Antara quoted him
as saying.

The beefing up of security by the Navy of security in Riau
waters is apparently in response to allegations that the military
has backed the rampant sand theft.

The central government has taken over the authority from the
provincial administration on the issuance of sand quarrying
licenses to local exporters due to the province's inability to
curb the illegal sand mining.

A number of environmental organizations have urged the
government to stop sand exports to Singapore because besides the
low price of sand on the Singapore market, it has damaged the
environment and given no benefit to locals.

Adyaman said the Navy would also crack down on the syndicates
behind the sand smuggling and would arrest all those who backed
the syndicates even though they were servicemen or state
officials.

"It is a good lesson and a warning for local businessmen not
to abuse their close relations with the military and government
officials to back their illegal activities," he said.