Release without fines sought for foreign dredgers

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.