Lured by huge profits, Acehnese fishermen land in Indian prison

By Yasad Ali

BANDA ACEH (Antara): Lured by the big profits they could make from tuna, 42 fishermen from Aceh went after the fish with such great zeal in June last year that they found themselves in India's territorial waters.

They were apprehended by Indian authorities and sentenced to between one year and one-and-a-half years detention on India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

The Indonesian naval ship KRI Tongkol took home 12 of the fishermen in May and the Navy's Cassa U-620 aircraft flew home another 14 on Oct. 13. The remaining 16 fishermen will have to complete their sentences.

According to the returned fishermen, they all got to the Andaman and Nicobar islands because the waves carried them there.

M. Nasir, a 43-year-old fisherman from Sabang, said that they went to sea on June 10 last year, and that 10 days later they had to deal with Indian officials on Nicobar for allegedly violating India's territorial waters.

"For a week after sailing from Sabang, the distance between Sabang and Nicobar is about 194 kilometers, we caught about 350 kilograms of tuna. One night, very late and still at sea, we slept on board the vessel.

"When we woke up the next morning, we saw the lighthouse on Nicobar island. We tried to return to Indonesian waters but we got surrounded by officials from the Indian authorities."

According to some other fishermen, they sailed close to Nicobar solely because they tried to get as much tuna as possible. Operating close to Nicobar, they said, they could make Rp 3 million in a week.

Nasir said that besides Acehnese fishermen, fishermen from other countries have also found themselves stranded on Nicobar.

Fishermen are usually tempted to fish around the Andaman and Nicobar islands because in the waters of these islands a school of dolphins can be seen in the company of a large school of tuna.

The fishermen admitted that they were lured by the profit they could make if they succeeded in catching a great number of tuna, even if they had to run the risk of illegally entering another country's territorial waters.

On the two occasions of receiving returning Acehnese fishermen, commander of the Sabang naval base, Capt. Masril Mansur, advised them to heed territorial water boundaries whenever they go fishing.

He said that illegally entering a neighboring country's territorial waters might disturb friendly relations with that country.

The returning fishermen promised they would never again go fishing too close to the territorial waters of other countries.

"We will never again sail close to Nicobar waters. Staying on the island for over a year was really mental suffering for us. Besides, being far away from our families, we also had to work hard for our living," Nasir said.

He quickly added, however, that he would be ready to fish in the waters of Andaman and Nicobar if the fishermen from Indonesia and India established a legal cooperation.

In this context, Capt. Mansur suggested that the fishermen of the two countries should explore the possibility of establishing such a cooperation, given that tuna abounds in the waters of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Separately, head of Aceh's fishery service, Kasbani Kasim, said that efforts were once made to establish fishing cooperation between the fishermen from Aceh and their counterparts from Andaman and Nicobar, but that, unfortunately, the Indian government had not given its approval.

One of India's objections to this proposed cooperation was that the fishermen fishing tuna in the waters of Andaman and Nicobar are not only from Aceh.

With or without the cooperation and despite the ever-looming risk of being dragged into another country's territorial waters, many fishermen prefer to take their chances.

"It seems difficult to prevent our fishermen from fishing close to the Andaman and Nicobar groups. The only thing that we can do is to always remind them not to go over into another country's territorial waters," said Kasim, adding that the fishermen must also be introduced to an alternative means of making a living.

"The fishery industry, including fish canning, may provide a quicker way to improve the fishermen's life. It is expected that the investors in this industry will vie with one another in recruiting fishermen and providing them with modern fishing equipment," he added.