JP/5/SHIP

Fishermen still wary over fragile peace in Maluku

M. Azis Tunny, The Jakarta Post/Ambon

Although the security situation has largely returned to normal in the formerly riot-torn province of Maluku, people are still worried about the future of the fragile peace in the province.

The apprehension is manifested, by among other things, the low number of fishing and cargo ships docking in the Archipelago Fishery Seaport in the Maluku capital of Ambon.

Instead of docking in the seaport, the fishermen and the captains of the cargo ships, especially foreign ones, chose to dock their ships in Halong Seaport in Ambon, which is located inside the compound of the Ambon Naval base, for security reasons.

The head of the Maluku Maritime and Fisheries Office, Piet Norimarna, confirmed that the owners and captains of ships chose to dock in Halong seaport for security reasons.

"That is their right. And of course, they always pay charges on time to the Halong port administrator," he said.

Aside from the security issue, Piet explained that the amount of revenue that the provincial government obtained from docking services in Maluku seaports amounted to Rp 2.2 billion (US$234,042) between January to August this year.

Separately, Syafli, the head of Archipelago Fishery Seaport administration, called on ship owners and captains to feel free dock their ships in the seaport, saying that the security situation had returned to normal.

He said that the seaport administrator was cooperating with security personnel in Ambon, so that if things got worse, security personnel could be quickly deployed to secure the seaport and assure the safety of the ships and their crews.

Syafli hoped that the conducive security situation could be maintained in the province so that it could instill confidence to investors to put their money in the province, especially in the maritime and fishery sectors.

Maluku was rocked by sectarian clashes in 1999, when thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others had to take refuge in other provinces in Indonesia. The clashes only died down in 2003 after the warring camps signed a government- brokered peace pact in Malino, South Sulawesi province, in 2002.

The conducive situation allowed the central government to lift the civil emergency in the formerly riot-torn province in September last year.