Jakarta denies telling navy to sink ships smuggling sand
to S'pore
By Derwin Pereira
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,197974,00.html?
JAKARTA - Indonesian officials rejected Malaysian reports that
Jakarta had ordered the navy to sink ships smuggling sand from the
waters off the Riau islands to Singapore.
Accusing the Malaysian media of trying to inflame
Singapore-Indonesia ties, a naval officer here told The Straits
Times that the military would 'never act indiscriminately',
especially against commercial vessels of a friendly neighbouring
country.
'I have a message to the
Malaysian paper that ran this report which sounds a bit like a 'man
bites dog' story: Please use your common sense. There are proper
rules of engagement that we follow and only in the most extreme
cases do we resort to force,' he said.
'Who is this legislator that they are quoting? Does he know
anything about naval operations and what right does he have to
speak on behalf of the military and government of Indonesia?'
The Malaysian daily Berita
Harian ran a front-page story yesterday quoting the Riau district
head of the local parliament, Mr Andi Anhar Chalid, as saying
Indonesia had ordered its navy to sink dredgers smuggling sand to
Singapore.
The report, also carried by the New Straits Times, said a number of
ships had been stopped by the navy after Jakarta restricted the
export of sand to Singapore.
'Since sand was exported to Singapore almost 20 years ago, the
Republic has never acknowledged Indonesia as the source, and the
country has been on the losing end,' Mr Andi reportedly said. He
could not be contacted for comment.
Singapore's response to such criticism in the past has been that
sand imports are handled by contractors on a purely commercial
basis.
It has also made clear that it expects sand suppliers to comply
with the laws of the country from which they buy sand.
Mr Marty Natalegawa of the Foreign Ministry here said Jakarta was
concerned about the smuggling of sand to Singapore and both
countries had discussed the issue.
But there were 'established procedures' and bilateral forums for
dealing with it, he said.
'We won't deal with it in a gung ho manner as suggested by the
Malaysians,' he added.
'We have good ties with Singapore and would not want to damage it
in any way by doing something irrational.'
The naval officer, part of the western fleet overseeing operations
in the Riau area, said both nations held annual bilateral exercises
and joint patrols to deal with such problems.
'Both sides know that smuggling is a serious problem but we are
taking steps to address the problem,' he said.
'We have not received any order from our commander to fire at any
ship, especially against Singapore ships.
'Please let the Malaysian media know this.'
