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.