Pressure mounts to solve smuggling of 14 containers

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon

Prosecutors, police, and customs and excise officials in the West Java city of Cirebon are under fire for what is seen as their lax investigation into a smuggling case involving 14 containers filled with at least four luxury cars and hundreds of electronic goods.

Political parties reiterated their threat on Friday to mobilize thousands of party members to occupy the Cirebon customs and excise office if the case was not immediately resolved.

The warning was issued by local leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Justice and Unity Party (PKP), the Star and Crescent Party (PBB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party.

They issued a similar threat two weeks ago but eventually backed down in order to give local authorities time to investigate the case.

"Unfortunately, the customs and excise office and other authorities in charge of the investigation have not used this time to investigate the case seriously," said Dedi Subardi, a local PDI Perjuangan official.

"They (the authorities) are half-hearted in resolving the problem. So we and other members of the community are not to blame if we take action to solve this problem.

"We will no longer hesitate to occupy the customs and excise building," said Dedi, who is in charge of coordinating the mobilization of PDI Perjuangan supporters. He did not say when.

The speaker of the Cirebon legislative council, Suryana, said the threatened occupation of the customs and excise office was "understandable".

"Do not underestimate the pressure (political parties and the people) can exercise. The strong reaction shows that the people are serious about upholding the supremacy of the law," he said.

Suryana said the sluggish investigation had led many people to suspect that the authorities were involved in the smuggling case.

"Do not blame members of the community if they accuse the authorities of playing games with this case," Suryana, who also chairs the Cirebon branch of PDI Perjuangan, said.

The Cirebon Prosecutor's Office has named Soenarko Kasidin, the director of private company PT Tiang Grage, a suspect in the case of the 14 containers that were smuggled through the local seaport in January.

However, Suryana said declaring the businessman a suspect was an attempt to cover up the matter, which allegedly involves high- ranking local officials.

Soenarko, who is the owner of the containers, is not a key player in the case and will only be victimized by the conspiracy, Suryana added.

"How is it possible that in such a major case there is only one suspect? I believe that there must be other suspects who are much more important than him (Soenarko)," he said. "I ask the authorities to be really serious (about investigating this case)."

Prosecutors said it was likely more suspects would be named as they widened their investigation to include local customs officials and other officials.

Suryana said the failure of the customs and excise office to open the 14 containers was proof that the authorities were reluctant to look too deeply into the case.

The containers were to have been opened last Monday by customs officials, along with police officers, an investigative team from the Cirebon legislative council and prosecutors.

But because the head of the West Java provincial customs and excise office, Heru Santoso, failed to show up, the containers were left sealed.

There are some suspicions that the containers have been emptied, or that the contents have been switched with other good.

The 14 containers disappeared from the warehouse of the local customs office and were later discovered by the legislative council's investigative team at a warehouse owned by PT Yogadani Gemilang, a company run by a local businessman identified only as Jhony.

Known to have connections with senior military and police officers in Cirebon, Jhony's legal status remains unclear.

The 14 containers are now sitting at the Cirebon seaport after having been moved from Jhony's warehouse on Feb. 21.