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Kidnappings raise doubt about trilateral pact
The government is scrambling to respond to a fresh spate of kidnappings of Indonesians in waters off Malaysia, just as the Foreign Ministry prepares for its customary handover ceremony to symbolize the end of the hostage crisis in the Sabah-Sulu-Sulawesi triborder area
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span>The government is scrambling to respond to a fresh spate of kidnappings of Indonesians in waters off Malaysia, just as the Foreign Ministry prepares for its customary handover ceremony to symbolize the end of the hostage crisis in the Sabah-Sulu-Sulawesi triborder area.
Five Indonesian sailors were abducted in waters around Tambisan, Sabah on Thursday while three others including the boat’s captain were set free, a Malaysian police report carried by local outlets revealed on Saturday, just days after Jakarta announced it had secured the release of the last remaining hostage from the clutches of the notorious Abu Sayyaf militant group.
There was no confirmation about the perpetrators but Malaysian authorities suspect a faction of the Abu Sayyaf group was responsible for the abduction, after the boat caught by Malaysian radar was identified as a Philippine trawler.
The Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscomm) told The Star on Saturday that six gunmen dressed in black overalls had taken five of the eight fishermen hostage during the incident.
Esscom commander Hazani Ghazali said the perpetrators fled in the direction of the Philippines and that his side had been coordinating with its counterpart there to carry out a search operation in the area.
The Lahad Datu maritime police first received a report of the abduction Friday afternoon and sent a team to look for evidence. The boat was later detected by the Tambisan ATM radar post on Friday at 9 p.m. local time, according to Antara news agency.
The police found crew members Abdul Latif, 37, Daeng Akbal, 20, and Pian, 36, onboard and identified the hostages as Arsyad bin Dahlan, 42, Arizal Kastamiran, 29, La Baa, 32, Riswanto bin Hayono, 27, and Edi bin Lawalopo, 53.
The hostages were taken not too far away from the location of a previous kidnapping in Lahad Datu on Sept. 23 last year. The three Indonesians held hostage in that incident were all rescued, including 24-year-old Muhammad Farhan, who was set free last Wednesday.
Farhan was rescued by the Philippine military in Indanan, a municipality on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, while two of his shipmates were freed earlier on Dec. 22.
Meanwhile, comments from the Indonesian authorities remain scant as of Sunday evening.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said that details of the latest incident would be revealed when the ministry ceremonially hands Farhan over to his family — an event that had become customary under Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi. The ceremony was planned for Monday, although the latest hostage situation might still get it delayed.
Separately, the ministry’s director for citizen protection, Judha Nugraha, said the Indonesian consulates in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau in the Philippines were “still in coordination” with the Malaysian authorities, as quoted by kompas.com.
Notorious for beheading hostages over failures to pay ransom, the Abu Sayyaf group began targeting Indonesian sailors in 2016. Since then, 39 Indonesian sailors had been kidnapped, including one person who drowned in an attempt to escape.
A 2019 report by the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery recorded a total of 82 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships in Asia throughout last year — an 8 percent increase in the total number of incidents and a 15 percent increase in the actual incidents reported from 2018. At least 20 incidents occurred in Indonesia to ships at anchor, while eight happened in Malaysia and six in the Philippines.
The spate of abductions have brought together Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in a trilateral cooperation initiative that includes coordinated maritime patrols and other cross-border arrangements. Indonesia had previously hit out against Malaysia over the lapse in security around Sabah that led to the abduction of two Indonesian sailors in November 2016.
Retno reiterated in her annual policy speech earlier this month that the trilateral scheme needed to be strengthened. However, analysts argued that the government should look beyond the formal trilateral initiative considering the extent of repeat offenses in the triborder area.
International relations expert Dinna Wisnu suggested that the government form “informal relations” with local government authorities in the Philippines, who she says are like “warlords” with their own autonomy and security capabilities independent of the central government.
“To solve issues affecting our citizens who pass by their territories, we cannot depend only to formal relations with Manila,” she told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Terrorism expert Yon Machmudi of the University of Indonesia said the kidnappings were likely to continue so long as armed groups are drawn to Indonesians as targets for ransom.
“They [the trilateral patrols] ought to be continuously intensified, considering the latest incident occurred so close to the last rescue operation. There may still be loopholes that the kidnappers can use,” Yon told the Post. (tjs)
