NGOs : GOVT MUST FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO CONTROL RI SEAS

Jakarta, April 3 (ANTARA) - A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are urging the government to fight for Indonesia's right to control its own seas at the upcoming World Ocean Conference (WOC) in Manado next May.

"We call on the government to fight for our right to control our own seas at the upcoming World Ocean Conference," Dani Setiawan, chairman of the Anti Debt Coalition (KAU), told the media here on Friday.
He also asked the Indonesian government to prepare the agenda for the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) Summit to be organized in conjunction with the WOC.
The NGOs reminded the government not to use the WOC and CTI Summit to ask for loans in order to prevent the country's seas and marine natural resources from being controlled by foreign parties.
Meanwhile, Secretary General of the People's Coalition for Fishery Justice Riza Damanik said of the total US$471 million funds used to save the world's biggest coral triangle, 50 percent were from the Asian Development Bank (ADP) and only three percent from the CTI six members countries or CT-6.
He said Indonesia should not repeat a mistake it had made in the past when it had requested foreign fundings for the development of shrimp ponds which had caused destructions of 1.9 million hectares of the country's mangrove forests.
"The worse is that after directing farmers to become shrimp farmers, the shrimp ponds are now under the control of foreign companies," he said.
He hoped that Indonesia in the upcoming conference and summit could affirm its commitment to using its seas for the benefits of marine ecology and people.
Indonesia should also ask for other countries' commitment to stop fish poaching in Indonesia's water territories, he said.
The CT-6 member countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste, will hold CTI Summit in Manado on May 15, 2009.