JAKARTA, Indonesia (9 Mar 2006) -- 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. SOURCE - Jakarta Post | | 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 'take pictures, leave only bubbles' green-wash, a small but strident group of wreck 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. "The vast majority of the global scuba diving community opposes shipwreck looting and underwater grave robbing," said CDS President Evan T. Allard. "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 added. "It is absolutely imperative that the global scuba diving community, archaeologists, coast guards, police and tax authorities act now to prevent shipwreck looters from exploiting and destroying sunken ships for their personal coffee table displays, internet self-promotion schemes and tax-evasion scams." 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. |
|
|
