Indonesia insists it has good reasons to ban sand exports

The Straits Times, February 14, 2007


JAKARTA - INDONESIA has rejected Singapore's questioning of its decision to ban sand exports, maintaining that it has 'good reasons' to do so.

Indonesia's reaction, published in the Jakarta Post yesterday, followed a discussion of the issue in Singapore's Parliament on Monday.

'We have very strong reasons to ban sand exports to any country, including Singapore,' Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya told the daily.

He said sand mining had caused 'very severe environmental damage in many Indonesian islands, including in Sebayik and Nipah islands'.

The newspaper article also quoted an unnamed high-ranking official at the ministry as saying that sand mining had 'deteriorated areas of Indonesia's outer islands, threatening to narrow the nation's territory'. The official said 'some parts of the Indonesia-Singapore border were still in dispute' and 'mining, which is often in these areas, could cause Indonesia to lose the basis for some territorial claims'.

The Post sought the comments from the ministry after Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo and National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan fielded questions on the subject from Singapore MPs.

Mr Yeo said it was not clear how the mining of either land or sea sand affected maritime boundaries, noting also that sea boundaries between the countries had been settled under a 1973 agreement.

He said land sand was used in Singapore for construction and it came from inland areas far from Indonesia's island borders.

As for sea sand, he said Singapore had not used any since Indonesia barred its exports in February 2003.

On Indonesia's claim that environmental concerns were a reason for the sand ban, Mr Mah told MPs: 'We have...expressed our willingness to cooperate and work with them to see how we can further address these concerns. However, this offer was not taken up, and obviously, we're still prepared to do so.'

The ban on sand exports took effect last week and applied to all countries, including Singapore, one of the largest importers of Indonesian sand.



By Salim Osman, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT