Indonesia Steps Up Anti-Piracy Campaign

The Indonesian Navy’s Western Fleet (Armabar) is initiating a piracy prevention program that aims to raise awareness among young people.

The Jakarta Post reports Armabar’s commander Rear Admiral Achmad Taufiqoerrachman saying that many of the people the navy arrests are teenagers employed by criminals but themselves unaware of the crimes they are committing.

“We will go to villages where most of the piracy suspects come from and start the campaign,” he said.

The first area targeted includes the islands of Riau as well as areas in and around the Malacca Strait and Natuna Island.

According to the Navy’s investigation, at least 90 percent of piracy cases in the area are instigated, often for insurance purposes, by people, both Indonesian and foreigners, other than the pirates themselves.

The Armabar recently arrested three pirates who stole oil from the tanker MT Joaquim last August in the Malacca Strait. At least one of the pirates had thought of himself as an employee and unaware he was undertaking criminal activities on behalf of his employer.