‘Missing WWII wrecks not our fault’

We can’t be expected to protect sites without help, says Indonesia

Jakarta: Indonesia has refused to take the blame for the disappearance of at least six British and Dutch World War II shipwrecks – considered war graves – that investigators believe could have been salvaged for scrap.

Former colonial ruler The Netherlands has launched a probe into how three Dutch navy ships seemingly vanished from the bed of the Java Sea, while Britain has urged Indonesia to investigate the disappearance of three of its vessels.

It is believed that the military wrecks – lost in 1942 during the Battle of the Java Sea – were removed by illegal scavengers looking for scrap metal.

More than 900 Dutch and 250 IndoDutch sailors died during the battle, in which the Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat by the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Indonesian authorities yesterday sought to distance themselves from the mystery, saying they could not be expected to protect the sites without assistance.

“The Dutch government cannot blame the Indonesian government because they never asked us to protect those ships,” said Bambang Budi Utomo, head of the National Archeological Centre under the Ministry of Education and Culture.

“As there was no agreement or announcement, when the ships go missing, it is not our responsibility.”

Amateur divers in 2002 discovered the longlost wrecks of three Dutch ships, 60 years after they sank while in action against Japanese forces.

But an international expedition that sailed to the wreck site in preparation for next year’s 75th anniversary of the battle was shocked to find that the wrecks had vanished.

“The wrecks of the HMNLS De Ruyter and HMNLS Java have seemingly gone completely missing,” the Dutch defence ministry said in a statement.

Britain expressed its distress at the disappearance of its own warships and asked Indonesia to “take appropriate action” to protect the sites from further disturbance.

Utomo said the looting “must have been going on for years for such a huge ship to disappear”.

Indonesia’s navy said the ships should not have been disturbed as they were war graves.

“However, the Indonesian navy cannot monitor all areas all the time,” navy spokesman Gig Jonias Mozes Sipasulta said.

“If they ask why the ships are missing, I’m going to ask them back, why didn’t they guard the ships?“

Looters, known to scour Indonesia’s relicrich sea for scrap metal and antiquities, have been blamed for the theft.

Naval warships and war graves are protected under international law and the desecration of such shipwrecks is illegal. — AFP