Navy battles crime Medan

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Belawan

The Navy has announced that it will continue its two-year drive against the increasing smuggling, piracy and illegal fishing off the eastern part of North Sumatra.

Commodore Slamet Subandi, chief of the Belawan Naval Base, said here on Tuesday that, since the deployment of an anti-crime team in Dec. 6, 2000, the Navy has handled a caseload of 31 crimes off the island.

"The Navy will continue its operations to bring violations of the law to a minimum on the high seas," he said.

Mayor Irawan, a sailor and leader of the anti-crime Navy team, said that his team has managed to foil four attempts to smuggle luxury cars and fuel from abroad into the province, along with seven fishing violations, and two piracy episodes.

In all, a total of 52 suspects have been taken into police custody in connection with the crimes.

Ten of the 31 cases have been already processed by the local government prosecutor's office, and would be brought to the district court.

He said that the Navy has also detained five pirates suspected of hijacking a passenger ship on the Tanjung Tiram waters off Asahan regency on Oct. 11.

The five -- identified as Ab, Kar, Adl, Ah and Sur -- will be handed over to the government prosecutor office for additional investigation, he added.

Irawan said that nine Acehnese people who were allegedly members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have been handed over to the Bukit Barisan Military Command supervising the province, which covers Aceh and West Sumatra, for further investigation.

The nine rebels were caught trying to smuggle 139 Acehnese people into Malaysia illegally, he said.

He added that the Navy has also seized several Thai vessels, along with dozens of crew members, who were found fishing in the province's waters illegally.