Govt sees solution to Croatian ship dispute

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government expects to be able to quickly resolve an ongoing diplomatic spat over the detention of a Croatian ship for allegedly transporting illegally-logged timber.

Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said on Friday that foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda had been in intensive talks with Croatian Ambassador to Indonesia Aleksandar Broz to seek ways to resolve the case.

"There is a certain modality being considered," Marty said as quoted by Antara.

He said that one solution being discussed was to require the Croatian ship owner to pay around US$1 million as a security deposit to take back the ship while the court case here continues.

"We must make sure that the case doesn't have a negative impact on the bilateral relations between Indonesia and Croatia," he added.

"The issue is that first, the ship lacks documents, and second, it was involved in illegal logging," another ministry official Yuri Thamrin said as quoted by AFP. "The ship's crew were caught red-handed transporting (illegally logged) merbau wood, so there should be some degree of responsibility."

Merbau is a precious hardwood mainly used for flooring.

Indonesian Navy personnel stormed the Croatia-flagged MV Mirna Rijeka on Tuesday while it was moored in Gresik waters, East Java, detaining some 17 crew. The incident sparked a strong protest from the Croatian government.

The Croatian ship has been involved in a lengthy legal battle with Indonesian officials since August 2004, when it was stopped in Papua by the navy after loading merbau logs and was found to have incorrect papers. The ship, which was hired by a Malaysian company called Admiral Shipping Malaysia to transport wood from Papua to China, was then taken to East Java as the case was being tried at the Surabaya court. The captain was tried and fined Rp 20 million (about US$2,000) in April.

But the crew then experienced difficulties in obtaining permits to leave East Java waters, and it was only then that allegations of illegal logging arose, according to Broz.

Indonesian law enforcers have said that the detention of the ship was part of a legal process to bring to light the alleged illegal logging case.

The government says it has declared a war against illegal logging, particularly in Papua, which environmentalists say has been a major source of illegal logs smuggled to China and Europe.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency said in February that 300,000 cubic meters of merbau wood was smuggled out of Papua every month to feed China's timber processing industry.