Two divers arrested in Indonesia

[Cablava]

Police arrest two men over shipwreck looting

Associated Press in Jakarta
Friday March 10, 2006
The Guardian


Police yesterday arrested two men accused of illegally salvaging treasure from a shipwreck in the Java sea.
A spokesman said the suspects, from France and Germany, removed 150,000 ceramic pieces from China's five dynasties period (AD907-960) from the wreck, which lies 178ft (54 metres) beneath the surface near the city of Cirebon on the Java coast.

Six of the eight-man crew had a permit to salvage the treasure, estimated to be worth millions of pounds, he said. Wrecks in Indonesian waters are frequently looted. If convicted the men could each serve up to 10 years in prison.

 

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[Harpooner]

And more about the subject . It came to me few days ago from my indonesian friends.


Headline News March 10, 2006 Jakarta Post

Police arrest two foreigners for taking ancient ceramics
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Police arrested on Wednesday two foreign nationals -- a German and a Frenchman -- for allegedly stealing ancient artifacts worth millions of dollars from shipwrecks in waters off West Java.
National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam identified the two as Fred Dobberphul and Jean-Paul Blancan.
Anton said police had found evidence the two men "exploited the reserved site and took historical artifacts out of it."
"We found that the ceramics are from the Tang Dynasty era in China during the period (AD) 618 to 906. Only then did we realize how valuable the materials were," Anton said.
The antiques were recovered from sunken ships in the sea off Java and the Bangka-Belitung islands, Alam told Agence France-Presse, adding that they included thousands of ceramics and pieces of glassware dating back centuries.
Police in January seized seven containers of the treasures kept at a warehouse near Jakarta. The operation to extract them began in 2004 and involved a team of divers from Australia, Britain, France and Belgium.
They recovered artifacts from China's Five Dynasties period from 907 to 960 AD and from ancient Egypt, causing a stir among archaeologists who said the cargo shed new light on ancient shipping routes.
The team has insisted their operation was legal -- they say they sent DVDs of the treasure images weekly to Indonesian authorities and openly discussed their finds with the media.
Alam said the two men would be charged under the 1990 Natural Resources Conservation Law.
Violators of the law face fines and from five to 10-year jail terms if they are found guilty.
"We are now detaining them at the (Police) Mobile Brigade headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Depok, in West Java because our prison is overcrowded here. Both are still being questioned there," Anton said.
Earlier on Wednesday several local people living by the sea said the two foreigners had brought out many ceramics from under the sea. The people then alerted nearby police.

Anton said the two could not produce any permits to show the legality of their activities when they were caught.

The arrest, Anton said, would enhance police's monitoring on several sites believed to contain valuable artifacts throughout the country.

"We are afraid that foreigners will illegally take these valuable materials abroad ... It would be a tragedy if we found that our historical artifacts are placed in foreign countries' museums. Then we would have to learn about our past from another country," he said.

And other from earlier news
Divers Unveil Exquisite Treasure Pulled From Depths of Java Sea
October 26, 2005, 05:20:18 pm ?
JAKARTA (AFP) - In a nondescript warehouse in Jakarta, treasure-hunter Luc Heymans dips
into plastic boxes and pulls out jewels and ornaments that lay hidden at the bottom of the Java
Sea for 1,000 years.
An ornately sculpted mirror of polished bronze is one masterpiece among the 250,000
artefacts recovered over the last 18 months from a boat that sank off Indonesia's shores in the
10th century. On a small mould is written the word "Allah" in beautiful Arabic script, on top
of a lid sits a delicately chiselled doe.
Tiny perfume flasks accompany jars made of baked clay, while slender-necked vases fill the
shelves of the hangar along with brightly colored glassware from the Fatimides dynasty that
once ruled ancient Egypt.
A team of divers, among them three Australians, two Britons, three French, three Belgians
and two Germans, excavated the vessel laden with rare ceramics which sank more than 1,000
years ago some 130 nautical miles from Jakarta.
Their finds, including artefacts from China's Five Dynasties period from 907 to 960 AD and
ancient Egypt, are already causing a stir among archaeologists who say the cargo sheds new
light on how ancient merchant routes were forged. "It is a completely exceptional cargo," says
Heymans, the Belgian chief of the excavation team. "There is very little information about the
Five Dynasties era and very few things in the museums. This wreck fills a hole," he tells AFP.
Close to 14,000 pearls and a profusion of precious stones were found in the wreck, including
some 4,000 rubies, 400 dark red sapphires, and more than 2,200 garnets. "On the second last
day of diving, I spotted some broken ceramics. Under 30 centimetres of vase, I uncovered the
handle of a golden sabre," says Daniel Visnikar, the leading French diver.
It took more than 24,000 dives to recover all the treasure from the boat which rests 54 metres
below the surface. Material recovered from the site has whetted the appetite of overseas
experts. "A 10th century wreck is very rare, there are only a few," says Jean-Paul Desroches,
a curator at the Guimet Museum in Paris, after seeing photographs of the early hauls.
He says the wreck and its cargo offers clues to how traders using the Silk Road linking China
to Europe and the Middle East, used alternative sea routes as China's merchants moved south
because of invasions from the north. The variety of loot pulled from the depths is hard to
imagine: dishes adorned with dragons, parakeets and other birds; porcelain with finely-carved
edges; teapots decorated with lotus flowers; and celadon plates with their glaze intact.
"These porcelains come from a very special kiln, an imperial kiln, perhaps from the province
of Hebei in the north of China," suggests Peter Schwarz, a German ceramics specialist.
Heymans insisted the treasure -- the subject of controversy when the divers were chased from
their barge in the open-sea by the Indonesian navy last November -- was stored in a
comprehensive and transparent manner. "Every piece is indexed and we know which part of
the boat it comes from. Every week we sent (the Indonesian authorities) a DVD with digital
photographs of all the pieces," he says.
As well being chased by the Indonesian navy, an incident that began a long dispute over the
booty, Heymans says another group of treasure hunters also tried to move in on the swag.
Cosmix, Heymans' Dubai-based corporation, was the force behind the five-million-euro
operation, which was funded by unnamed private investors in Europe.
The divers say the treasures might be bought by a foreign museum or are expected to be
shown between 2006 and 2007 in an auction, as the cargo is valued at several million dollars.
Indonesia will receive 50 percent of proceeds from the sale of the treasures.

 

[Tommi]

I'm a little confused in what's going on, why would the police seize the whole booty if 6 of the 8 had permits to work the site. I would think the 2 who didn't have the papers would get in trouble and the 6 left can get back to work.
I would assume the two who are arrested would be released if Indonesia would want a 50% share from the sales of the booty. Unless the Indo Police keep it for themselves?

 

[suwannee pirate]

Indonesia is one of the most corrupt goverments in the world They have been known to give out permits for salvage and then once the treasure is mostly recovered have a problem with the permit that you got from them.They have no concept of truth ,honesty or fair play Lets turn that place to glass and give it to Australia. Bob

 

[Cablava]

Bribery ensures spoils go to the treasure hunters


The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

During the last 20 years, there have been dozens of legal and illegal salvage operations to recover ancient treasures from shipwrecks in Indonesian waters.

Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of pieces of ancient ceramics, gold coins and glassware, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, have been removed from the country's seas.

With so much money being made by the treasure hunters, Indonesia has officially only received Rp 26.7 billion (US$2.9 million) for what should be a state asset.

"We handed over around Rp 27 billion to the Finance Ministry recently. We hope we can give more to the state in the future," said Ali Supardan, a senior official at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

The first major discovery of an ancient shipwreck occurred in 1985, when an expedition of foreign and local companies found thousands of pieces of ancient ceramic in the sea near the Heliputan islands in Riau.

Experts estimated the items were worth at least US$17.5 million. However, the state received nothing from the find when the recovered items were shipped overseas and sold at auction.

In 1999, another salvage project involving local and foreign companies recovered thousands of ancient ceramic pieces in the Gelasa Strait near the Bangka-Belitung islands in Sumatra. The government received less than $300,000 from this discovery, despite estimates that the treasure was worth millions of dollars.

A 1992 presidential decree stipulates the proceeds from any treasures recovered from Indonesian waters will be evenly split by the state and the salvage company or companies.

One senior government official, who asked not to be identified, said salvage companies preferred to bribe the necessary officials rather than pay the state.

"If a salvage company knows it will get millions of dollars from a sunken ship, it will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars bribing high-ranking officials to avoid paying the state," he told The Jakarta Post.

In 1998, German treasure hunter Tilman Walterfang found over 60,000 pieces of ancient Chinese ceramic dating to between the 7th and 10th centuries, near the Bangka-Belitung islands.

The discovery was praised as one of the most important ever in Asia, as it helped archeologists understand the ancient trade route known as the "Silk Road of the sea".

While the recovered materials were valued at about $80 million, Walterfang ended up paying Indonesia only $2.5 million in cash plus a number of unsold pieces.

To avoid paying the state its share of the treasure, Walterfang, who was reportedly financed by Matthias Dragger, a wealthy heir to Germany's Dragger family fortune, and his affluent brother-in-law Hans Michael Jebsen, director and co-owner of Jebsen & Co., a leading Hong Kong-based trading company, allegedly bribed several high-ranking officials in the Defense Ministry and the Navy.

German publication Der Spiegel, in its Jan. 30, 2006, edition, reported that Walterfang sold most of the ceramic pieces to the Singapore government in 2005 for $32 million, while taking recovered gold pieces to Germany and a large part of the remaining ceramics to New Zealand.

"We are still investigating the case. Unfortunately, all of the ship's crew, including the German, has left Indonesia. We are trying to trace him to find out why the state received so little," a police officer close to the investigation told the Post. (Abdul Khalik)

 

[Tommi]

What happened to loyality, trust, respect and honnor.... now I know why I'm refered to as a dreamer.

I hope Walterfang is faced with q $40 million bill.

 

[Cablava]

JAKARTA (AFP) - Southeast Asia's richest underwater archeological find in decades is stored under a leaky corrugated iron roof at a stable in Indonesia's capital, guarded by marines who claim a solitary gun between them.

ADVERTISEMENT

The glittering treasures stashed at this site are at the center of a shadowy scandal entwining accused modern-day pirates, booty worth millions of dollars, stern diplomatic protests and murky corruption allegations.

At risk, experts say, is priceless Indonesian history.

Timber and iron beams from a 10th-century wreck -- which could provide information about ancient trading routes and the arrival of Islam in Indonesia -- lie in a bath under the tropical sun behind yellow police tape.

Several thousand centuries-old Chinese ceramic bowls are stacked in plastic crates. Under a nearby hangar, fragile copper mirrors, beautiful glass bottles and ancient ship parts are also being stored as the drama outside unfolds.

Last month police swooped in the middle of the night on two divers, German Fred Dobberphul and Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan, accusing them of illegally salvaging their find during some 24,000 dives made over more than a year-long period.

"Blancan doesn't have a licence to do that, only PT Paradigma does," deputy national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told AFP, referring to the Indonesian salvage company that employed them.

Their lawyer Yudhistira Setiawan denies the claim, pointing out that both divers have work visas as employees of the company and kept authorities fully informed of their excavation work.

Blancan is now in an Indonesian prison hospital, suffering from typhoid and dengue fever, after being shifted from his cell with Dobberphul. The pair face up to 10 years' imprisonment.

"It is incomprehensible and scandalous. It concerns disrespect of freedom and of human rights," a furious Blancan told AFP last week during a telephone interview.

Both the German and French embassies here have said that the salvage operations had the necessary permits from at least 11 ministries. The French embassy issued a protest note saying that Blancan's arrest was arbitrary.

Police say their charges are based on a 1992 law on cultural heritage, but the company's lawyer and Marine Ministry say this was superceded by a 2000 presidential decree aimed at making treasure-hunting transparent.

Under the decree, a salvage company receives a license to retrieve a wreck's contents and returns 50 percent of its earnings to the Indonesia government.

Luc Heymans, the Belgian head of the salvaging project begun two years ago, claims that a rival company, PT Tuban Oceanic Research and Recovery (TORR), was behind the arrests, aiming to get their own hands on the bounty.

He alleges that corrupt elements in the Indonesian police -- who work in a country regularly rated as one of the most graft-prone in the world -- have assisted his rivals.

When asked about the corruption allegations, police insisted their investigation followed the 1992 law while Budi Prakosa, director of TORR, has denied that his company wants to take over their work.

Prakosa told local investigative weekly Gatra last month that he had reported Heymans and his team to the Marine Ministry because he had "concrete data" about their illegality.

Indonesia's Agency for the Protection of Underwater Heritage, a government body that coordinates the complex issuing of permits for salvage operations, has sent repeated letters to police arguing that Heymans' team was legal, agency head Hasyim Zaini told AFP.

"We already checked the process for Paradigma, and we know it followed the rules and procedures for excavation," he said.

Each week the imbroglio drags on, Indonesia is at risk of losing a key portion of its maritime history, experts warn.

After sitting under the ocean for a thousand years, the treasures urgently need complex preservation treatments, Heymans said.

"Some of the artefacts are in great danger if the government doesn't open up the warehouse. The bronze pieces are in danger of eroding," he said.

Of particular concern are some fragments of the ship's structural timbers and iron bars, which are sitting in salty water in a desalination tank -- originally a horse bath -- open to the elements beside the warehouse.

While the fragments are not financially valuable, they provide important clues to trade between Indonesian kingdoms, Persia, Africa, and China, said Horst Liebner, a maritime historian advising the Marine Ministry.

"They are losing answers to (questions about) the Java and Srivijaya kingdoms, some of the richest kingdoms of their time," said Liebner, referring to early Indonesian maritime kingdoms flourishing between the 7th and 12th centuries.

Horst said preliminary research into the ship's cargo contested prior theories about the earliest arrival of Islam in the archipelago.

Tenth century wrecks, particularly with cargo from Egypt, China and Persia, are extremely rare, said Catherine Noppe, a curator of Belgium's Far Eastern Art at the Royal Museum of Mariemont.

"There are a lot of more recent shipwrecks, but nothing that could be compared with the Cirebon shipwreck," Noppe, who provided scientific advice to the salvage team, told AFP in an email.

Cirebon, near the location of the wreck, is located about 200 kilometres east of Jakarta and was once an important regional Islamic port. Heymans' wreck is among more than a thousand believed sunk off the coasts of Java and Sumatra.

Heymans and the Marine Ministry have asked both police and the Indonesian president for permission to continue the desalination and preservation process while the police investigation continues.

Asked whether police were concerned that Indonesia's early history was disintegrating behind police lines, spokesman Bachrul replied curtly: "That's their opinion."

 

[Cablava]

France demands Indonesia release jailed divers
Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
PARIS (2 Apr 2006) -- The French government Tuesday demanded that Indonesia immediately release a French diver arrested last month with a German colleague for allegedly carrying out illegal archaeological work.

The French foreign ministry summoned the Indonesian ambassador on Monday to voice its "strong protests over the arbitrary detention of our compatriot," according to its spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.

"We demand that the situation be clarified without delay and that he be released without delay, along with his German colleague," said the spokesman.

Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and German national Fred Dobberphul were arrested on March 8, accused of illegally salvaging thousands of treasures from a 10th-century wreck in the Java Sea over the past year.

Last week the men, who risk 10 years in jail, were ordered detained for another 40 days, despite protests from the French and German authorities.

Blancan is currently in an Indonesian prison hospital, suffering from typhoid and dengue fever.

Police claim the men were diving without a proper licence, although their lawyer, the French and German embassies and the Indonesian marine ministry all insist the work was properly authorised.

Mattei repeated that the Indonesian company that employed the two divers was in possession of "all necessary authorisations" for conducting underwater archaeological searches.

The ship's cargo, which includes thousands of pieces of china and ceramic, bronze and gold objects bought from Arab traders and of semi-precious stones, could provide important clues about ancient trading routes and the arrival of Islam in Indonesia, according to experts.

The Belgian head of the archaeology project, carried out jointly with an Indonesian partner, claims that a rival company, assisted by corrupt elements in the police, organised the arrests to gain access to the ship's bounty.

SOURCE - Expatica

Liars and looters Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard. Following the lead of dive industry-endorsed shipwreck looters Bishop and Sheard, scuba diving thieves around the world are destroying wrecks for bragging rights, coffee table displays and internet auction profits that amount to a fraction of the revenue shipwrecks can generate as fully protected underwater museums.

FROM THE EDITORS OF CDNN

Despite dive industry 'take pictures, leave only bubbles' green-wash, a small but strident group of scuba diving looters steal artifacts from shipwrecks under the guise of 'archaeological exploration', and aggressively compete for bragging rights, product endorsements and profits from the sales of stolen artifacts that are now on a par with those from smuggling humans and drugs.

"We do not care about Leigh Bishop and Brad Sheard's personality problems, their hate-mongering web sites, their chat room shenanigans nor their crude attempts to blackmail good companies that support full protection of marine wildlife and shipwrecks," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "Such unscrupulous conduct is beneath contempt and serves only to substantiate accusations they have committed crimes and will continue to do so unless authorities step in."

"The fact is that the vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing, and with good reason," Allard added.

"For scuba divers, every shipwreck is an underwater museum to be fully protected for our children, our grandchildren and all future generations of divers who will dive deeper and longer thanks to ongoing improvements in diving technology ," Allard said.

CYBER DIVER ALERT

If you have information pertaining to the theft and/or sale of wreck artifacts, or desecration of underwater grave sites by Leigh Bishop, Brad Sheard, organized crime gangs or anyone else, please contact CDNN immediately and your information will be passed along to appropriate authorities.

 

[Cablava]

Foreign shipwreck divers in the wrong: Police
Annissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite the confirmation of the legality of a shipwreck excavation permit from the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry, the National Police are insisting that they will continue legal action against two foreign divers currently under police detention.

"We'll see the result of their trial. The judges will determine the legality of their permit," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said Thursday.

German diver Fred Dobberphul and his French colleague Jean-Paul Blancan were arrested earlier last month for allegedly stealing ancient artifacts worth millions of dollars from shipwrecks in waters off West Java.

Both divers were employed by a local company PT Paradigma Putra Sejahtera to assist a scientific excavation project that started in April 2004.

Dobberphul is currently being treated at the National Police Hospital for gastric problems while Blancan is jailed at the Police Mobile Brigade headquarters in Kelapa Dua, Depok.

Their 20-day detention has been extended for another 20 days for further investigation and trial, Anton said.

The two face charges of violating the 1992 Law on Heritage Sites since "they did not have a permit to excavate the artifacts."

While the police claimed that the two divers did not have a permit, the Maritime and Fisheries Ministry has confirmed the legality of their licenses.

"The company had the required permit from the National Committee for Shipwreck Treasure Excavation. And the committee had a sound legal basis to grant it," ministry official Aji Sularso said.

The excavation committee was founded in 2000 based on a presidential regulation aimed at providing legal certainty for the process of recovering national treasures and creating a more transparent mechanism for such activities.

The Maritime and Fisheries Minister heads an interdepartmental committee involving 11 state institutions including the Navy.

Interviewed at the police hospital, Dobberphul said that his arrest was based more on business competition. "It has something to do with Tuban Oceanic Research," he told The Jakarta Post.

Underwater excavation company Tuban Oceanic Research and Recovery director Putu Ngr. Mangku denied the allegation, stating that his office had not filed a report for the arrest.

 

[Cablava]

Two divers from France and Germany charged over the theft of treasures from shipwrecks in Indonesian, will be detained until their trial.

Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and German national Fred Dobberphul were arrested on March 8, accused of illegally salvaging thousands of treasures from a 10th-century wreck in the Java Sea over the past year.

They face up to 10 years jail if found guilty.

"They will be detained until their trial," said police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam, adding that no date had been set for a trial.

The men's lawyer Yudhistira Setiawan said under Indonesian law, police could take months to complete the investigation before submitting their files to prosecutors.

"According to criminal law there is no time limit on (a police) investigation. But the maximum time limit for detention is one year," he said.

The French government demanded earlier this week that Indonesia immediately release Blancan, summoning the Indonesian ambassador in Paris to voice its protest over the detention, which it described as arbitrary.

The cargo salvaged from the ship includes 250,000 pieces of china and ceramics along with bronze and gold objects bought from Arab traders and thousands of semi-precious stones.

 

[Cablava]

Salvaged treasure held hostage by legal proceedings
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

What lies beneath Indonesian waters is not always gold, but in this case is certainly valuable enough to stir up an interwoven scandal of alleged arbitrary arrest, diplomatic protest and corruption.

Piles of Chinese ceramics and fragments from a wrecked Indonesian trading ship dating back to the 10th century are slowly decaying, causing not only economic but also historical losses.

"It does not matter if a problem lies behind this, but for sure, valuable scientific artifacts are at risk," said Horst Liebner, a researcher at the Maritime and Fishery Ministry.

Earlier last month, the National Police arrested non-national divers Fred Dobberphul and Jean-Paul Blancan for conducting an allegedly illegal shipwreck excavation project in the Java sea.

Ancient artifacts estimated to be worth about US$40 million were confiscated at the time of their arrest.

Dobberphul and several of his colleagues said the arrest was made based on a report from rival company Tuban Oceanic Research, which was aiming to get its hands on the artifacts, while the police said it was based on reports of potential state losses.

Both divers were working for underwater excavation company PT Paradigma Putra Sejahtera.

Related embassies as well as colleagues of the divers have objected to the arrest, saying the researchers were working for a registered company with the necessary permit for the project.

"Whatever comes from the auction of the artifacts will be split equally between the company and the state," Dobberphul said, denying any potential state losses.

Meanwhile, Tuban Oceanic director Putu Ngr. Mangku said his company had nothing to do with the arrest but claimed he had data on potential state losses from the excavation.

"The government risks losing Rp 1.35 trillion from the excavation," he said.

He said collusion was behind the issuance of the permit.

And, while everyone is busy pointing fingers, fungus and bacteria have started to grow on the improperly handled artifacts, researcher Liebner said.

"The ceramics should have been continually desalinated while the organic artifacts require regular soaking in clean water," he explained.

Currently, the artifacts, except for the precious stones safely kept in Bank Mandiri's safe deposit box, are kept in sealed containers.

"Some of the artifacts have no economic value but provide valuable historical information," Liebner said.

He said there were indications of an intentional act to destroy the scientifically valuable articles.

Items rescued from the shipwreck could provide information on the early Indonesia maritime kingdom, Sriwijaya, Dobberphul said.

Leibner explained previous underwater excavation projects had only emphasized the potential commercial value of the artifacts. "They were never scientifically accountable," he said.

 

[Cablava]

Another probe by the Indonesian Government, more ammunition Cornelius

Treasure hunting legend in probe
09 April 2006
By MATHEW LOH HO-SANG

A German treasure hunter living in Nelson is being investigated by Jakarta authorities who believe he may have left the Indonesian government millions of dollars out of pocket.


Tilman Walterfang, 49, was credited with one of the great shipwreck finds of last century following the 1998 discovery of a Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 AD) shipwreck off the coast of Indonesia.

But Indonesia national police spokesman Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam said authorities were investigating Walterfang and the salvage of the wreck. Known as the "Batu Hitam" (Black Rock), the wreck contained more than 60,000 ceramic objects. Ancient porcelain wine jugs and tea bowls, embossed golden and silver chalices and plates worth millions of dollars were retrieved from the depths.

Walterfang's firm Seabed Explorations, of which he is the sole director, is registered in New Zealand and he is a resident who owns property in Nelson where he and his family live.

The treasure also spent time in the South Island stacked in an aircraft hangar for sorting, desalting and inspection by experts from the Shanghai Museum.

They confirmed it was part of a huge cargo of 8th-century porcelain that traders from the Chinese Tang Dynasty had put aboard an Arab dhow for export to Malaysia, India and what is now Saudi Arabia.

The dhow's remains, found among the treasure, suggest the ship was wrecked on the treacherous underwater reefs of Indonesia's Karimata Strait.

AdvertisementAdvertisementUnder local law the Indonesian government was entitled to half the value of the salvaged goods, and a deal was eventually struck with Seabed Explorations, which paid the government $US2.5 million and a collection of artefacts as 50 per cent of the estimated value of the treasure.

An export licence was then issued and Walterfang transported gold to Germany and his share of the ceramics to New Zealand for storage and desalination.

He then started brokering the sale of the trove, and last year sold a large amount of ceramics to the Singapore government for a reported $US32m. Walterfang said he had no problem with the Indonesian investigation.

"The police are looking at all activities regarding undersea treasure and want to stop looting. It's a normal process and I welcome it."

He said he had a watertight deal with Indonesian authorities, and that Singaporean and Indonesian authorities had consulted extensively before a deal was signed in February last year.

The find in only 17m of water off the Sumatran island of Belitang has catapulted Walterfang to legendary status among treasure hunters. Walterfang, a mechanical engineer, ended up salvaging the oldest wreck found in Asia.

 

[Cablava]

Foreign divers released after employers promise to pay bond
JAKARTA (JP): Police have released German and French divers accused of looting Indonesian shipwreck after their employers promised to pay Rp 700 million (US$77,777.78) bond should they run away or destroy evidence.

Lawyer of the two divers Yudhistira said that his clients were released on Wednesday evening after executives of PT PPS, which hired the divers, guaranteed that their employees would not leavethe capital.

"If the two go away or destroy the evidence then they have to pay Rp 700 million. My clients are required to report to police twice a week," he told The Jakarta Post.

Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and Fred Dobberphul of German national were arrested on March 8. They were accused of illegally salvaging thousands of treasures from a 10th-century wreck in Java sea some 70 miles off Cirebon, West Java.

The French government demanded earlier that Indonesia immediately release Blancan, summoning the Indonesian ambassador in Paris to voice its protest over the detention, which it described as arbitrary.

Blancan, 53, and Dobberphul insisted that they were innocence.

"If you know that you are 100 percent innocent and you are treated like a criminal, it's hard," said Dobberphul.

Several government agencies -- Maritime and Fishery Ministry, National Education Ministry and Culture and Tourism Ministry -- have also protested the arrest and the seizure of treasure. THey said that the expedition had obtained permits. (ABD/**)

 

[mariner]

Cablava,

This is a very interesting story. Thanks for keeping us up to date on developments.

Mariner

 

[JakePhelps]

Forget indonesia...id take the "evidence" and leave... and whats with it being called evidence and being treated as if its only worth so much money to them, what happened to it being historical artifacts of a culture

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Re: Two divers arrested in Indonesia..update

Jakarta releases divers accused of looting

JAKARTA, April 13, 2006 (AFP) - A French and German diver accused of stealing treasures from shipwrecks in Indonesian waters and held by authorities here for more than a month have been released pending further investigation.

Frenchman Jean-Paul Blancan and German Fred Dobberphul were arrested on March 8, accused of illegally salvaging thousands of treasures from a 10th-century wreck in the Java Sea over the past year.

Their detention had caused diplomatic ructions, with Paris summoning Indonesia's envoy and accusing Jakarta of arbitrarily holding the two men.

After his release, Blancan, 53, maintained his innocence.

"Being held, knowing that you're completely innocent, that's what I couldn't stand," he told AFP shortly after his release late Wednesday.

"The two embassies did an amazing job. Tomorrow I will hug everyone," he said, sporting a wide grin.

"If you know you are 100 percent innocent and you are treated like a criminal, it's hard," added his co-diver Dobberphul.



France demands Indonesia release divers





While the two have been released, they remain under investigation, accused of illegally salvaging a cargo including 250,000 pieces of china, thousands of semi-precious stones and bronze and gold objects bought from Arab traders.

Dobberphul said the two had been ordered to check in with police twice a week and not leave Jakarta.

Under Indonesian law, police could take months to complete the investigation before submitting their files to prosecutors, the pair's lawyer Yudhistira Setiawan said earlier.

They face up to 10 years in jail if found guilty.

The French government demanded last week that Jakarta immediately release Blancan, summoning the Indonesian ambassador in Paris to voice its protest over the detention, which it described as arbitrary.

The Belgian head of the archaeology project, started two years ago in a venture with an Indonesian partner company, has said he believes a rival company ? wanting to get its hands on the bounty ? was behind the arrests.

 

[Dave N Japan]

When you are down there, Just make sure your ass is covered...If you have documents, you better make sure you have copies and someone on the outside with all this knowledge!
Happy they got out ...for now anyway!

 

[jeff k]

Jakarta - Indonesia plans to soon auction thousands of ancient ceramics, gold coins and glassware from a 10th-century shipwreck after ending a dispute with police who had seized the booty and arrested foreign salvage divers, a newspaper reported Thursday.

In what turned out to be an embarrassing incident, the national police acknowledged that the salvaging operation, led by a German and a French national about 100 kilometres off the northern coast of West Java, was legal and had clearance from the Jakarta government, The Jakarta Post reported.

The auction of 76,000 restorable items out of more than 490,000 recovered pieces could net as much as 40 million dollars with the Jakarta government and two Indonesian and Belgian firms that financed the operation splitting the profits.

Police had raided a storage warehouse containing the recovered the artifacts in January, impounded the ship used in the salvage operation, and arrested Frenchmen Jean-Paul Blancan and Fred Dobberphul.

At the time, police officials claimed the salvage operation had not been authorized but later conceded that the group had obtained a proper permit from the National Committee on Sunken Treasure before the operation began in 2004.

In recent decades, foreign salvage teams have plundered some of the countless sunken ships around the Indonesian archipelago and left without the government even knowing about their operations until the items were later auctioned abroad.

Aji Sularso, the minister for maritime affairs and fisheries, was quoted as saying a presidential decree on underwater salvaging operations would be amended to prevent a similar mistake.

'We have learned from this experience,' he said. 'The new decree will include police in the salvaging process and establish a permanent body that will be authorized to handle requirements related to the salvaging process.'

 

[Peg Leg]

What a bunch of CRAP.
I have a cousin that was with the U.S. State Department in Jakarta and was told that under no conditions would they recommend ANYONE coming to this location even as a tourist.
Cornelius this just about eliminates any chance of getting backers for your project but I still wish you the best of luck.
Peg Leg

 

[Cablava]

Mike Hatcher is working in Indonesia just north of Java just now