One killed as navy fires on Chinese ship

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

A crew member of a Chinese-flagged vessel was killed and two others were injured when navy ship KRI Dalpele 972 fired at the vessel when it was allegedly caught poaching in Arafura Sea, the navy said on Wednesday.

Chief of the Navy's Eastern Fleet information office Lt. Col. Toni Syaiful said the fishing vessel MV Fu Yuan Yu had been intercepted on Monday as it was poaching in Indonesian waters.

"When the KRI Dalpele caught the ship poaching in Indonesian waters and tried to apprehend it, it was attacked and had to fire at the ship," Toni told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The incident reportedly took place on Monday morning when the navy ship, under the command of Lt. Col. Estu Prabowo, came upon four ships believed to be illegally fishing in the Arafura Sea, located between Papua and Maluku provinces.

Three of the ships got away and the navy ship aimed at the MV Fu Yuan Yu.

The navy ship then tried to contact the crew of the trawler first by radio and then by semaphore. Instead of stopping, the Chinese ship sped up. The navy ship fired three warning shots into the air.

"But when the warning shots were ignored, we aimed at the vessel as a last warning," Toni said.

However, the trawler maneuvered and it appeared that it was going to ram into the KRI Dalpele. At that time, the navy shot at the trawler, hitting its stern.

"We acted according to procedure but they resisted," Toni said.

When the marines boarded the ship, they found one of the 16 Chinese crew members, Mea Weng Qang, dead, while two others, Wang Heping and Yuan Weng You, were wounded. They were taken to Merauke harbor in Papua for medical treatment.

The navy, which has been working to crack down on illegal fishing by foreigners, found two tonnes of fresh fish on the trawler. The navy said trawls, which are prohibited in Indonesian waters, had been used, the crew member's passports had expired and the vessel had no fishing permit.

A press officer at the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta, Xie Yong Hui, was reported by AFP as saying that he had been informed of the incident by the navy "and we are in the process of confirming this".

Xie said the embassy had been unable to contact the Chinese crew members and was trying to determine whether or not the shooting was justified.