Officials turn a blind eye to smuggling

Officials turn a blind eye to smuggling

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Tanjung Balai, North Sumatra

Smuggling has persisted in a seemingly unchecked manner at
perhaps 15 small seaports in North Sumatra province despite the
presence of security forces, according to some officials and
residents.

"Usually, goods smuggled to and from abroad are loaded and
unloaded in the small seaports throughout the night," Syaiful
Ganda, a fisherman from Tanjung Balai regency, told The Jakarta
Post.

"There are always security people around when the smuggled
goods are loaded and unloaded," he added.

Syaiful said such illegal practices have taken place for a
long time in and out of the ports that are operated by private
companies and used normally for ferrying passengers to
neighboring islands.

Some of these ports, numbering at least 15, are located
between larger ports in Tanjung Balai and Bagan Asahan. Others
are found in Nibung Bay and Es Dengki.

Syaiful said smugglers have operated in such places virtually
unchallenged, thanks to the apparent backing from certain
government and security officers.

Other local fishermen and residents said smuggling practices
continued in Tanjung Balai, even though police and port
authorities have launched the occasional raid against smugglers
in North Sumatra.

"How can smuggling in Tanjung Balai be stopped, while almost
all officials there, including those from the local customs
office and the water police, are suspected of taking bribes from
smugglers," Syaiful claimed.

One of the cases included around 100 tons of plastics which
were allegedly smuggled from neighboring Malaysia to Tanjung
Balai. The shipment, allegedly belonging to a businessman from
Medan, was unloaded from a ship at 9:25 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2003.,
according to local fishermen.

Adj. Sr. Comr. Adityawarman, chief of the security operations
unit at the Belawan port in Medan, did not specifically deny the
widespread accusations that certain officers were involved in the
smuggling.

Officials of local excise and customs offices should be most
to blame because they should be on the "front lines" in dealing
with smuggling cases through seaports, he said.

"We (police) are essentially the second line of defense,"
Adityawarman added.

He confirmed that smugglers had been operating mostly along
North Sumatra's east coast ranging from Belawan, Asahan and
Tanjung Balai to Labuhan Batu.

Private ports, particularly those around Tanjung Balai, have
played vital roles in the increase of smuggling practices, he
said.

"For smugglers, the geographic location of Tanjung Balai is
very strategic because there are many river inlets that can be
used as safe places to hide their ships," Adityawarman added.

He said many cases of smuggling, which had been dealt with by
his office, revealed that most of the smuggled goods were shipped
to and from Singapore and Klang Port in Malaysia.

Tanjung Balai is about a 2-hour journey from Klang Port.

Fishermen in Tanjung Balai said on Saturday that they had
received a report that several ships carrying smuggled sugar and
electronic goods were sailing from Klang Port.

However, Adityawarman could not confirm the report.

He claimed that it was impossible for smugglers to operate
through official ports as security inspections were tightly
imposed on every ship.