Indonesia questions claims over pirate attacks in its waters
Indonesia questions claims over pirate attacks in its waters
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Jakarta
A senior government official objected on Wednesday to accusations that Indonesia's territorial waters were rife with piracy.
Tjuk Sukardiman, director general of maritime at the Communication Ministry, complained that piracy reports compiled by the London-based International Marine Organization (IMO) tended to lump all theft at sea under the term piracy.
The IMO claimed that a total of 404 pirate cases were recorded worldwide in 2002, of which 144 reportedly occurred in Southeast Asian sea waters with 109 of these recorded in Indonesian waters - making it the most piracy-prone area in the world.
By comparison, IMO recorded only 17 cases of piracy in Malaysian waters, 12 cases in the Philippines' and five cases in Thailand's.
A total of 103 cases of piracy occurred in international waters during the first three months of this year (January- March), according to the IMO's data, with 28 of the cases taking place in Indonesia's territorial waters.
But Sukardiman argued that the numbers issued by the IMO are not correct, because they fail to differentiate between piracy cases and robbery cases on-board the ships.
Indonesian antipiracy officials claim that many of the so- called cases of piracy in their waters are in fact scams carried out between ship owners and organized gangs to claim insurance on cargos and vessels.
"Not all cases of thefts and robberies on-board ships can be categorized as pirate activity," the state-run Antara news agency quoted Sukardiman as saying. "The number of statistics released by the IMO is too high."
A senior official earlier this week urged the government to intensify its control over 20 islets amid fears they are being used as pirate bases.
Son Diamar, an expert on maritime affairs at the national development planning, said that the islets may not feature in dispute claims with neighboring countries but are strategically positioned as pirate bases.
"Indonesia has thousands of remote and uninhabited islands and it is the government's duty to exercise its authority on those islets at all times," Diamar said.
Diamar did not provide the names of the islets but said they were located close to Indonesia's neighboring countries.
The latest catographic survey found that there are more than 17,508 islands in Indonesia but only 5,707 have been named.
Diamar said the ownership of four islands were currently being disputed by East Timor, the Philippines and Singapore.