Release without fines sought for foreign dredgers
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Owners of the companies chartering five of 13 foreign dredgers that are detained in Tanjung Balai Karimun, Riau for sand smuggling, have reportedly offered a bribe for their release, Antara news agency reported on Friday.
Reliable sources in Riau and Singapore told Antara that a number of executives of companies chartering the five dredgers traveled to Jakarta to meet high-powered officials, to ask them to persuade law enforcers to release the five dredgers with no charges.
"They have spent one month negotiating with someone to approach officials in Jakarta so that the five dredgers held for more than two months are released with no charges," Antara quoted a sand businessman, who asked for anonymity, as saying here on Friday.
The five confiscated dredges are Vasco Da Gama, MV Samsung Apolo, MV Profesor Gorjunov, MV Lange Wrapper and Alexander Humbol.
The foreign dredgers and their crews, mostly foreigners, are still being detained by the Navy in Tanjung Balai Karimun.
MV Vasco Da Gama, chartered by PT ERC, and Prof Gorjunov contracted by PT AYS were seized for lacking the necessary documents to transport sand from Riau waters to Singapore.
Samsung Apollo chartered by PT AY and Lange Wraper used by PT MLB were impounded by a naval warship when both were carrying sand to Singapore without the required documents.
Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rokhmin Dahuri said recently that the government would process all the ships in accordance with the law while the Attorney General's Office in the cooperation with Navy, the local customs and excise office and the maritime ministry were still preparing dossiers on 13 ships to be submitted to the court.
Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Bernard Kent Sondakh has warned naval officials against intervening in the cases, saying naval officials meddling in any of the cases would be given harsh sanctions and brought before a tribunal.
A number of local businessmen and officials have been linked to the smuggling of sand from the province to Singapore. The operation is well organized by an international syndicate in collusion with local businessmen.
One of the sources said the five dredgers' charter companies had offered a huge reward for anyone who could secure the release of their ships without going through legal channels.
"They are ready to spend however much money is needed to release their ships because the longer the ships are detained, the losses they will suffer," said the source.
Sand mining has long been protested because of the environmental damage it causes in the Riau archipelago, and it has brought no advantages to either the provincial administration or locals.