RI navy storms Croatian ship, detains crew

RI navy storms Croatian ship, detains crew

Victor Tjahjadi, Agence France-Presse/Jakarta

The Indonesian Navy on Tuesday stormed a Croatian merchant ship and detained around 25 crew after a long-running court battle, Croatia's ambassador Aleksandar Broz said, describing the move as illegal.

About 200 navy personnel stormed the ship at Surabaya port in East Java province at about 10:00 am (0300 GMT) after negotiations aimed at allowing it to leave Indonesian waters stalled, the ambassador told AFP.

"This morning, 200 Indonesian navy stormed the ship and took it over. They were even targeting the captain with a gun at his head asking him to sign papers," Broz said. "From our side, the complete action is illegal."

Twelve armed men remained on the ship, the M/V Mirna, late Tuesday and he was awaiting an explanation from the Indonesian foreign ministry, he said.

"The embassy expresses its astonishment at the behavior of the Indonesian executive authorities," said a later statement from the mission.

In Zagreb the Croatian foreign ministry also condemned Indonesia's seizure.

"We are surprised by this beaver... which is in complete contradiction with the official policies defended by that country," it said in a statement.

Indonesian navy spokesman First Admiral Malik Yusuf said only 10 sailors boarded the ship to enforce an appeal court ruling issued Monday which found that the ship was involved in illegal logging and should be handed over to the Jakarta government.

The ship was first stopped by the Indonesian navy in Papua in August last year after loading logs and was found to have incorrect papers. The captain was tried and fined around 2,200 dollars in April, the embassy statement said.

"After paying the fine, the ship and the captain were freed and the navy was obliged to follow the ship into international waters," the ambassador told AFP. "They tried to get papers for the ship to sail but found obstruction from all possible sides."

The dispute widened to include allegations of illegal logging which the ambassador said should have been dealt with months ago while the captain was waiting to stand trial.

A meeting of government ministers and officials on Saturday resulted in the foreign ministry proposing that the company pay Rp 10 billion (US$1 million) to allow the ship to leave, the embassy said.

"In the meantime a navy vessel and two speedboats circled around the vessel at anchor, targeting it with artillery and machine guns for half an hour and then left," the ambassador said.

Navy spokesman Malik Yusuf said the navy was asked to provide "assistance" to board the ship by the court and attorney- general's office.

"Officials went to the ship with a copy of the appeal court ruling and asked the crew to sign the letter. They refused to do that because they wanted to wait for their lawyers and officials from the embassy to witness it," he said.

No violence had taken place, he said. The Indonesian foreign ministry declined to comment.

While it is not clear where the ship is alleged to have been taking the timber, environmental investigators say that timber smuggling from Papua to China is the world's largest logging racket.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency alleges that illegal logging in Papua involves Indonesian military and civilian officials, Malaysian logging gangs and multinational companies as well as brokers in Singapore and dealers in Hong Kong.