JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities on Tuesday (April 5) blew up 23 foreign vessels that were detained for fishing illegally in the country’s waters, amid growing tensions in the regional maritime domain.
The boats, 13 from Vietnam and 10 from Malaysia, were blown up simultaneously at seven ports from Tarakan in northern Kalimantan to Ranai on the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea.
Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti witnessed the destruction, which was coordinated by the navy, coast guard and police, via live-streamed Internet video at her office in downtown Jakarta.
“The sinking of the boats is to enforce the law and to protect the sovereignty of our territory to ensure that the sea is the future of our nation,” Ms Pudjiastuti was quoted as saying by Kompas.
Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago nation, has taken a tough stance against illegal fishing since President Joko Widodo took office in 2014,with his administration blowing up dozens of foreign vessels as part of a campaign to protect Indonesia’s maritime resources and domestic fishing industry, which loses billions of dollars in revenues to illegal fishing each year.
He has also pledged to transform Indonesia into a maritime power and, over the past two years, orchestrated a much-publicised sinking of three empty Vietnamese vessels, as well as a 300 gross tonne Chinese vessel, among others.
The hardline policy has stoked tensions with Indonesia’s neighbours and trading partners. Jakarta lodged a furious protest to Beijing late last month after the Chinese coastguard intervened as Indonesian patrol ships tried to detain a fishing vessel near islands in the South China Sea. While Indonesia does not have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea, Jakarta is nervous about Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the region.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which about US$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, by the “nine-dash line” it has marked on maps to define historical borders on which it claims sovereignty. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also claim parts, as does Taiwan.
Indonesia is not embroiled in rival claims with China over the waterway, but has raised concerns over China’s inclusion of the resource-rich Natuna Islands in its so-called “nine-dash line”.
In the last few weeks, Chinese fishing vessels have been reported intruding into what Vietnam and Malaysia consider to be their territorial waters – with Hanoi announcing on Monday that they have seized a Chinese vessel carrying diesel fuel in the Gulf of Tonkin
Kuala Lumpur also summoned the Chinese Ambassador last Friday to register its concerns over what the government said was an encroachment by around 100 Chinese-flagged boats into the country’s waters in the South China Sea.
Late last month, Ms Colin Willett, a Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US Department of State’s East Asia and Pacific Bureau told South-east Asian journalists that Washington finds it disturbing that maritime disputes between China and South-east Asian countries have escalated over Chinese fishing vessels accused of straying into regional waters. AGENCIES
