Officials lambast sea piracy claim

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): Indonesian officials and a tourism entrepreneur lambasted on Friday unconfirmed reports of mushrooming sea piracy off South Sulawesi's southern shores.

"We doubt the reports' accuracy. We've been intensively patrolling and combing the territory (of the South Sulawesi sea)," said Col. R. Soejono, assistant for intelligence affairs at the Navy's Fourth Base in Ujungpandang.

Soejono was responding to a Newsweek main story in the July 5 edition, titled "Pirates of the South China Sea", which indicated the active presence of pirates in the waters off Selayar Island, some 300 kilometers south of the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang.

"Particularly in Selayar waters, we deploy five to six of the Navy's armed ships with a total of 200 personnel in each ship... So far, we haven't found any indication of pirates.

"And all of this time... we have only found fishermen who committed fish bombing," he said.

The Newsweek article reported that Mike Severns, an organizer of a group of American divers, had been extorted and threatened by 12 men wearing tattered police uniforms and armed with guns in Selayar waters last May.

The New York-based magazine also quoted Hans Otto, a German skipper, who has run charters between Java and Sumatra for almost three decades, as saying that, "Any fishermen can turn pirates if you're too nice and friendly. To them, you're just a big fish".

The article also advised people to avoid dangerous spots, such as the waters off the South Sulawesi province and Ambon in the Maluku province, saying: "sailing in Indonesian waters could be dangerous."

Local officials condemned the report and demanded the magazine revise the story.

"That report is untrue. They (the magazine) have never checked or asked our opinion about such reports. The bottom line is that the story was never confirmed," Selayar Regent Akib Patta said. "The magazine should have rechecked the real conditions in Selayar. The reports are certainly damaging tourism activities and will convey a bad image of our country."

President of Songline-Sea Trek Cruises Indonesia William Robin Angel also regretted the report.

"We are really bothered with the news," Angel said, adding that he has never heard of any piracy reports during his travel agency's many years of experience. (27/edt)