Thousands of fishermen run amok in Cilacap

Thousands of fishermen run amok in Cilacap

By Agus Maryono

CILACAP, Central Java (JP): Thousands of fishermen ran amok
yesterday at the Nusantara Fishery Port and nearby areas because
of low wages and corruption. They burned at least 10 trawlers,
four cars, 10 motorcycles and 20 houses belonging to residents of
Chinese descent.

The angry mob continued rampaging until late into the evening.
From the port areas, they continued into the center of Cilacap,
despite the deployment of hundreds of security personnel and two
further platoons of reinforcements from nearby towns.

The authorities arrested at least 14 people. There were no
reports of any injuries, but tension ran high and a number of
thoroughfares were blocked by security forces.

The rioting erupted in the morning when thousands of angry
fishermen started to burn a number of trawlers moored in the
fishing port near here.

They then moved eastward into Cilacap, burning and damaging a
warehouse and shrimp ponds owned by Chinese-Indonesians, and
several cars in nearby areas.

Hundreds of local military personnel were well outnumbered by
the mob and the authorities were forced to call for back-up from
the nearby towns of Wangon and Purwokerto, 20 and 40 kilometers
north of Cilacap respectively.

The mobs initially refrained from looting any of the
buildings. By evening, however, they started to loot a number of
stores.

Cilacap Police chief Col. Andi Lolo told The Jakarta Post that
the riots were triggered by the fishermen's discontent over the
low wages paid by their employers and the alleged corruption of a
number of port officials.

"For years, the fishermen have been paid only Rp 2,000 (18
U.S. cents) per day," Andi said, adding that their wages were
below the regional minimum wage.

Andi estimated the riot had caused billions of rupiah worth of
damages.

"A trawler is worth Rp 500 million. There are also the damaged
buildings, cars and other facilities," Andi said, adding that
extra security measures were needed because Cilacap is an
important supplier of fuel for state-owned oil company Pertamina.

The crews of the fishing boats and fishermen said they were
exploited by their employers. They also said that they had not
received a pay rise in the past six years.

They also complained about how port officials extorted money
from them.

"Not only are we paid Rp 2,000 per day, we are also cheated by
the port officials," one of the fishermen, Marwoto, said. "The
port officials often cut our actual daily haul (so we earn even
less).

"If we get five metric tons of fish, 15 percent of which we
are entitled to bring home, they say the haul is only three tons
and this means we lose almost half of the haul," added Marwoto.

Andi said he would soon summon the fishermen, employers and
the officials to discuss the matter.

Antara, however, quoted local military chief Col. Moh. Noer
Muis as saying that the unrest was triggered by a fight among the
fishermen themselves.

A local fisherman told of how fishermen from Bagansiapi-api,
Riau, who operated in the areas, often made more money because
they had better equipments, causing envy among the locals. In
addition, the Riau fishermen often violated a local lore that
fishermen must not work on certain Fridays.

"We were angry at them and that's why this happened," the
local fisherman was quoted by the news agency as saying.

Yesterday's incident follows Thursday's unrest when troops
clamped down on mobs attacking and pillaging rice mills, shops
and plantations in the East Java town of Bondowoso and the
surrounding districts of Pujer, Tlogosari and Wonosari.

Similar incidents also took place in Deli Serdang, North
Sumatra, on Wednesday when security personnel fired warning shots
at hundreds of people attacking an office of a state-run palm oil
plantation there.