RI to set up radar to monitor Ambalat, Tahuna waters

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/02/2010 11:00 AM

The government said Sunday it planned to establish a radar system to monitor Ambalat waters in East Kalimantan and Tahuna waters in North Sulawesi, near the borders with Malaysia and the Philippines.

"When we complete the installation of the radar system in the two bodies of water, we will be able to monitor all ship movements in our waters," Defense Minister Purnomo said as quoted by kompas.com.

He said the radar would help prevent weapon smuggling, terrorism, illegal fishing and waste disposal activities.

Purnomo was on a working visit to Miangas and Marore Islands, North Sulawesi when he issued the statement.

Indonesia Admits People-Smuggling Role

Jakata Globe, February 07, 2010

Government officials have acknowledged that Indonesian citizens are continuing to play a role in smuggling people to Australia.

On Sunday, Teguh Wardoyo, a director at a Foreign Affairs Ministry unit tasked with protecting the nation’s citizens overseas, admitted that many Indonesians were still involved in people smuggling, in particular to the country’s southern neighbor.

The admission follows the charging by an Australian court on Friday of an Indonesian for allegedly smuggling people into the country.

According to a statement released by the Australian Federal Police, the man faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail and/or a fine of 220,000 Australian dollars ($109,036).

“The AFP charged the man with one count of facilitating the bringing of non-citizens into Australia” of five or more people, the statement said.

Teguh said that the ministry had been assisting the man in the Western Australian city of Perth, but said they could not interfere with the ongoing legal process the man was facing.

“We have to respect the legal process in Australia,” he said.

The man was detained on Nov. 14 last year when the vessel he was on was blocked by a Royal Australian Navy patrol boat operating under the control of the Customs and Border Protection Command, southwest of Ashmore Reef.

Over the past three years, Australian patrol boats have stopped at least seven boats filled with asylum seekers. The latest was carrying 181 passengers and four crew members.

As in previous cases, the passengers of the captured boats were transported to Australian Immigration’s detention center on Christmas Island where they underwent security, identity and health checks, as well as interviews to establish their reasons for wanting to enter Australia.

The Indonesian Consulate in Perth said the boats bringing asylum seekers to Australia were often captained and manned by Indonesians.

According to its Web site, AFP has charged 94 people, including a number of Indonesians, for human trafficking offenses since September 2008.

An Australian Embassy spokeswoman said Australian Ambassador for People Smuggling Peter Woolcott had visited Jakarta last week in an effort to increase cooperation between the two countries in tackling the problems of human trafficking.

The spokeswoman said that during the visit, Woolcott met with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and immigration officials, as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration. 

JG, Antara

Turtle, Snake Smugglers Busted at Jakarta Airport

Jakarta Globe, Putri Prameshwari, February 03, 2010

A quarantine officer inspecting pig-nosed turtles at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on Wednesday. Antara Photo/Ismar Patrizki

An cargo consignment documented as 2,200 kilograms of fresh fruits shocked even the most seasoned customs officials at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Tuesday when they discovered at least 700 snakes and over 3,400 pig-nosed turtles inside.

“The document just said ‘fresh fruits,’ ” said Gatot Sugeng Wibowo, chief of investigations at the customs office.

Gatot said the illicit cargo was being exported by a company identified only as PT IDT, located in West Jakarta, and was scheduled to be shipped to Hong Kong on a Cathay Pacific flight on Tuesday.

Gatot did not say whether police had tracked down PT IDT’s executives. “These snakes and turtles are mostly used to make soups and sex-enhancing drugs,” he said.

Following a thorough check and seizure by the airport’s quarantine department, it was revealed that at least 25 bags contained Chinese rat snakes and six other bags contained 3,492 pig-nosed turtles. In total, the cargo was worth at least Rp 5.7 billion ($616,000).

He said that the two people in charge of the packages were being interrogated.

“They have not been named as suspects yet,” Gatot said, without elaborating.

Gatot said airport officials became suspicious after seeing two tons of fresh fruits scheduled for shipment to Hong Kong.

“According to our procedures, we have to check any unusual export activity at the airport, so we opened the packages. That’s when we found the turtles and snakes,” Gatot said. The smugglers violated a 1990 law on the conservation of natural resources and a 1992 law on animal-quarantine regulations. They could face five years in prison and fines of up to Rp 100 million ($10,800).

The pig-nosed turtles, found in Papua, are sought mostly for their eggs. Their exports are regulated in Indonesia.

In December, police arrested a man accused of smuggling 10 rare kangaroos by boat from New Guinea island.

Five of the kangaroos died and the surviving five were given to a Surabaya animal sanctuary.

Illegal trade in rare and exotic animals is rampant in Indonesia, owing to poor law enforcement and the wide range of exotic species found here.

Customs office gets vessel to fight smugglers, poachers

Aditya Suharmoko, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Thu, 12/17/2009 1:58 PM

The customs and excise office on Thursday received a 38-meter speedboat from state shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia to operate out of Tanjung Balai Karimun Port and patro for smugglers and poachers.

"We need vessels that can maneuver and quickly detect smuggling, which is growing more varied," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in her speech at the PAL office in Surabaya.

She added Indonesia's large maritime area needed better supervision from the customs and excise office to protect the economy.

PAL is scheduled to deliver another two vessels of the same type early next year to the customs and excise office.

Indonesia Confiscates Explosives at Sea

The Jakarta Globe

Indonesian special forces soldiers demonstrate anti-terror skills last month in Denpasar, Bali. Seventeen crewmen from a seized boat carrying explosive materials are being questioned for possible links to terrorism, authorities said. (Photo: Made Nagi, EPA)

Officials say they have confiscated 75 tons of an explosive material being shipped from Malaysia to Indonesia and are investigating possible links to terrorism.

Customs official Nasar Salim says the ammonium nitrate was found on a ship captured in the South China Sea. Ammonium nitrate can also be used as fertilizer, but Salim says 95 percent of the material imported into Indonesia is used in explosive devices.

He says possible links to terrorists are being investigated.

Salim said Friday that 17 crewmen are being questioned while police search for the shipment's owner.

Indonesia has been ravaged by terrorist attacks in recent years that killed more than 250 people. Bombings at two Jakarta hotels in July killed seven people and wounded more than 50.

AP

41 illegal ports in Batam make way for illegal entry: Authorities

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 04/08/2009 7:21 PM

Illegal ports have provided means for illegal immigrants to enter Indonesia, immigration director general Basyir Ahmad Barmawi said on Wednesday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

According to reports there are 41 illegal ports in Batam. These have been used not only by smugglers but also human traffickers, particularly from abroad.

"We will deal with illegal immigrants with the help of various other institutions," Batam administration officer I Wayan Subawa said.

Illegal immigrants come under the authority of the Foreign Ministry. (amr)

Tanjung Perak police foil fertilizer smuggling attempt

Surabya, East Java (ANTARA News) - Police at Surabaya`s Tanjung Perak Port on Tuesday foiled an attempt to smuggle 4,000 tons of fertilizer worth Rp25 billion to Vietnam.

A port police spokesman, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Gagas Nugraha, said the MV Hoang Phuang Star with the fertilizer in its hold was nabbed when the ship was still berthed at Tanjung Perak`s Zamrud pier.

"At first, we were suspicious about the ship, and in an investigation we found 1,863 tons of fertilizer without legal documents inside the ship," Nugraha said.

He said in a follow-up investigation , the police found a document of PT Prima Mulya Abadi to export 4,000 tons of fertilizer worth Rp25 billion to Vietnam.

But in reality, the owner of the fertilizer was not PT Prima Mulya Abadi but PT Multimas Chemindo which obtained the fertilizer from PT Sentana Adidaya Pratama which had imported the commodity from Canada.

The police afterward named Suanto, director of PT Multimas Chmindo; Jhoni Eko Saputro, director of PT Prima Mulyo Abadai; and Benny Juansyah, director of PT Sentana Adidaya, as suspects.

Besides holding the suspects, the police also nabbed the Vietnamese-flagged ship and seized 4,000 tons of KCL fertilizer along with several documents.

Four Indonesians stand trial over drugs smuggling in Japan

The Jakarta Post, Tokyo | Thu, 03/19/2009 7:22 PM

Four out of 12 Indonesians stood trials on Thursday and are facing charges on 300 kilograms drugs they smuggled during their ways to reach Moji seaport in Fukuoka, Japan, while taking Sierra-Leone flagged cargo ship.

Indonesian Deputy Ambassador for Japan Ronny P. Yuliantoro said that his office had deployed two officials to monitor all the court processes.

“All defendants have had lawyers accompanying them during the trials. The Fukuoka Court has provided some translators so as they can understand all explanations given during the processes,” he told Antara state news wire.

On Nov. 11, 2008, the Japan Coast Guard arrested cargo ship “Universal” along with the 12 suspects at Moji seaport and confiscated 300 kilograms of amphetamine worth Rp 2.3 trillion (US$191 million) from them. (ewd)