Jakarta backs down from tough stand

The Straits Times, February 21, 2007
By Salim Osman, INDONESIA CORRESPONDENT


Sand ban was not imposed to pressure Singapore to sign extradition treaty
JAKARTA - TOP Indonesian officials yesterday appeared to have backtracked on claims that the recent ban on sand exports to Singapore was linked to negotiations on the extradition treaty and border issues.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told the Indo Pos daily that Jakarta had stopped the sand sales simply to prevent further damage to the environment.

'The ban is not being used as a way of applying pressure on Singapore into signing the extradition treaty and settling the border issues quickly,' he was reported as saying yesterday.

Rather, it came about because of the government's concern that the removal of sand from Indonesia's outer islands flattened them below sea level, causing severe environmental damage, the minister said.

'The existence of these islands is a very sensitive matter as it concerns our sovereignty,' he said, adding that there were some outstanding border issues with Singapore, including in the areas to the west and east of Batam.

At the same time, the top Indonesian foreign ministry (Deplu) official who reportedly admitted last week that the sand ban was linked to the extradition treaty, yesterday denied making such a statement.

The director-general (East Asia, the Pacific and Africa), Mr Primo Alui Joelianto, told the evening Sinar Harapan newspaper: 'I have never linked the ban on sand export to the extradition treaty.

'The ban was imposed firstly to protect the environment from being damaged and secondly to protect our sovereignty.'

The extradition treaty was only linked to the Defence Cooperation Agreement, he said, reverting to the official line agreed to between Indonesia and Singapore that the two agreements are linked.

The Defence Cooperation Agreement was proposed to restore defence cooperation between the two countries after Indonesia froze the use of a joint military training area in 2003.

Singapore has maintained that it has no objection to signing the extradition treaty but that it will take time to work out complex issues normally associated with such treaties.

When the ban was announced last month, Jakarta said that it only took the decision because it needed to protect its environment and maritime borders.

Early this month, Vice-Admiral Djoko Sumaryono, head of Indonesia's Maritime Security Coordinating Board, was the first senior official to say the sand ban was prompted by 'Singapore's indecisiveness' in resolving border and extradition issues.

Then, the Jakarta Post last week quoted Mr Primo as saying that the sand ban was a 'a key way of placing more pressure on the city-state to move faster towards signing an extradition treaty and resolving the countries' border spats'.

'Besides concern about rising environmental deterioration... the ban also aims to push them (to resolve differences) in extradition and some border negotiations,' he was quoted as saying.

His remarks prompted some lawmakers to call on the government to do more to pressure Singapore than just banning sand.

In response to Mr Primo's reported remarks, Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday: 'If this is indeed Deplu's approach, it is a disappointment to us. The official reason for the ban announced last month was environmental protection. Director-General Primo's remarks lead us to wonder whether that was the main reason for the ban.'

The ministry also said that Singapore had entered negotiations with Indonesia on an extradition treaty and border delineations in good faith, in hopes of arriving at agreements that benefited both sides mutually.