INDONESIA BEGINS SINKING ILLEGAL FISHING BOATS

By Andi Abdussalam
Jakarta, Dec 6 (Antara) - Indonesia has detained 155 foreign fishing vessels and, on Friday, sunk three of them, a stern measure lauded by all sides at home to clear the country's water of foreign fish poachers.         "We have detained five large foreign ships and 150 other small ones across the country last week. We sunk three of them on Friday to teach them a lesson, so that they will give up poaching in Indonesian waters," President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said in a discussion with local fishermen in Gorontalo on Saturday.          Jokowi, who was inaugurated as Indonesia's seventh President last October, has repeatedly said the country has lost some Rp300 trillion annually from illegal fishing and that there are currently 5,400 illegal ships operating in Indonesian waters, due to a lack of decisive action by the government.          Three Vietnamese boats, which have been proven to have illegally fished fish in Indonesian waters, were made to explode by the Indonesian Navy off the Anambas Island waters,  Riau Islands, on Friday.         "We have been planning the sinking operation since Friday morning. Three fishing ships were going to be sunk. They were all from Vietnam," the Head of Information Office of the Indonesian Navy, First Admiral Manahan Simorangkir, was quoted as saying by local online media on Friday.