TNI AL Sanggah Lukai Nelayan Vietnam
Indonesia Navy Denies Wounding 4 Vietnam Fishermen in Clash
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
TNI AL menyanggah kabar tentang empat nelayan Vietnam terluka saat mengusir nelayan asing tersebut dengan melepaskan tembakan setelah diduga melakukan penangkapan ikan ilegal di wilayah perairan Indonesia.
Kepala Dinas Penerangan TNI AL Laksma Gig Jonias Mozes Sipasulta mengatakan sebuah kapal perang (KRI) melepaskan tembakan peringatan ketika dua kapal Vietnam yang dicegat empat mil laut di wilayah Indonesia pada Minggu berlayar menuju haluannya.
Dalam sebuah pernyataan yang dirilis Senin malam, Sipasulta mengatakan laporan tentang orang Vietnam yang ditembak tidak benar. Dia mengatakan kedua kapal penangkap ikan tersebut segera meninggalkan perairan Indonesia setelah KRI Wiratno-379 melepaskan tembakan peringatan.
Menurut surat kabar Vietnam Binh Din, yang mengutip kapten kapal Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, kapal-kapal Vietnam berada di dalam kedaulatan negara mereka, sekitar 100 mil laut di sebelah tenggara pulau Con Dao, saat diserang oleh angkatan laut Indonesia. Empat nelayan Vietnam tertembak dan terluka, dua serius, keduanya sekarang dirawat di kota Ho Chi Minh, menurut laporan tersebut.
Beberapa kapal penangkap ikan Vietnam lolos dari penangkapan oleh KRI pada Mei menyusul sebuah demonstrasi yang dilakukan oleh penjaga pantai Vietnam di Laut Cina Selatan, di mana klaim teritorial China tumpang tindih dengan perairan beberapa negara Asia Tenggara.
Indonesia, kepulauan terbesar di dunia, dengan lebih dari 13.000 pulau, telah menjadi semakin asertif dalam mempertahankan wilayah maritim dan zona ekonomi eksklusifnya.
Indonesia telah menghancurkan ratusan kapal penangkap ikan asing yang ditangkap di wilayahnya dan awal bulan ini mengatakan bahwa mereka telah menamai wilayah paling selatan di Laut Cina Selatan sebagai Laut Natuna Utara.
Para ahli mengatakan bahwa langkah tersebut bertujuan untuk melindungi zona ekonomi eksklusifnya di sebelah utara rantai pulau Natuna, yang tumpang tindih dengan jalur sembilan titik China yang menyatakan secara sepihak ke Laut Cina Selatan seperti dikutip Associated Press yang dilansir MailOnline.
INDONESIA'S navy has disputed reports that four Vietnamese fishermen were wounded in a weekend incident that was the second clash between the two countries in the South China Sea in two months.
Navy spokesman Gig Jonias Mozes Sipasulta said a warship fired a warning shot when two Vietnamese boats that were intercepted four nautical miles inside Indonesian territory on Sunday sailed toward its bow.
In a statement released Monday evening, Sipasulta said reports of Vietnamese being shot were untrue. He said the two fishing vessels immediately left Indonesian waters after the KRI Wiratno-379 fired its warning shot.
According to Vietnam's Binh Din newspaper, which quoted boat captain Nguyen Thanh Ngoc, the Vietnamese vessels were within their country's sovereignty, about 100 nautical miles southeast of Con Dao island, when attacked by the Indonesian navy. Four Vietnamese were shot and wounded, two seriously, both who are now being treated in Ho Chi Minh city, according to the report.
Several Vietnamese fishing vessels escaped Indonesian interception in May following a show of force by Vietnam's coast guard in the South China Sea, where China's expansive territorial claims overlap with the waters of several Southeast Asian nations.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, with more than 13,000 islands, has become increasingly assertive in defending its maritime territory and exclusive economic zone.
It has destroyed hundreds of foreign fishing vessels caught in its territory and earlier this month said it had renamed the southernmost reaches of the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea.
Experts said that move was aimed at protecting its exclusive economic zone north of the Natuna island chain, which overlaps with China's nine-dash line that roughly demarcates its claim to the South China Sea.
