Captains held in hell-hole business

Plagued by mosquitoes at night and marauding monkeys by day, ship captain Glenn Madoginog was held for months at an Indonesian naval base before ending up in a cramped prison cell.

The Filipino father of four was one of dozens of captains held at Batam naval base after being arrested for anchoring in Indonesian waters without a permit while waiting to enter Singapore.

Most were freed after a few weeks once ship owners paid intermediaries between US$300,000 (HK$2.34 million) and US$400,000.

But Madoginog, 47, says his firm declined to pay, so he and his vessel, the 20-year-old Seaways Rubymar oil tanker, remained at Batam, an Indonesian island 32 kilometers south of Singapore.

After a six-month wait Madoginog was sentenced in March to 60 days in prison, his life as a captain shattered as he ended up in a crowded, cockroach-infested cell, sleeping alongside convicted murderers and child rapists.

"The last few months were the worst time of my life," Madoginog says in Manila, where he returned in May.

American company International Seaways, one of the world's biggest tanker operators and owner of the now-scrapped Seaways Rubymar, said it had pursued all legal avenues to get him and the ship released.

But "as a matter of policy we do not pay bribes," it added, though it did all it could to improve Madoginog's conditions while he was in custody and continued to help him and his family later.

Dozens of ships waiting to enter Singapore were apparently seized by Indonesia for anchoring illegally in its waters, with most released after shipowners made unofficial payments.

The waters just to the east of Singapore have been used for decades by ships waiting to enter the city-state, but the Indonesian navy has cracked down on vessels it says are anchoring in its territory without paying fees.

It also says it never requests or receives money to release vessels, though the navy is investigating at Batam.

Four captains believe they were held for ransom in a scheme run by navy members.

David Ledoux, 57, an American who was captain of the fiber-optic cable-laying ship Reliance when it was seized last year, says he dodged prison after its owner made an unofficial payment to free him.

"This is piracy in its simplest form: arrest the ship, arrest the captain, hold the company ransom, collect the money," Ledoux says at home in North Carolina.

The alternative to making a payment to intermediaries working on behalf of the navy is to wait for cases to go to court, leaving ships idle for months when they could be leased for tens of thousands of US dollars a day.

The area where ships are detained is more than 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from the main Indonesian coastline, the standard distance considered to be in international waters under the Law of the Sea.

The Reliance and the Seaways Rubymar had anchored in an area, known as East OPL (outside port limits), the captains said.

But Indonesia has over 17,000 islands, and territorial waters can be drawn around uninhabited ones or drying reefs that could mean captains believe they are in international waters.

"That's why people have been caught out," says Stephen Askins, a maritime lawyer in London.

But Ledoux says he had been told where to anchor by SubCom's agent in Singapore, Ben Line.

Madoginog says his anchorage position was approved by V-Ships, a London-based firm managing his tanker.

When Ledoux was released on October 28 he sailed the Reliance to Singapore for maintenance.

Once the repairs were complete, Ledoux claims, he was called by SubCom's director of fleet operations, Scott Winfield, and told: "Upper management wants some ass, and it's going to be yours, so you're going to be demoted."

Ledoux lost his temper and quit.

Madoginog said he was detained on September 16 in a dawn raid by naval officers. He said they told him to sail to Batam and to sign port clearance papers.

When he arrived he was put in a dark, sweltering room, with an uncovered bed and a squat toilet. One officer asked for the phone number of his ship's owners and left.

Madoginog adds that he counted 27 other captains in similar rooms.

He and Ledoux struck up a friendship, washing clothes and burning trash in a yard outside their rooms, keeping an eye out for long-tailed macaques ready to run at anyone with food.

Buana Saka Samudera, the Indonesian agent for International Seaways, provided Madoginog with food, bedding and an air-conditioning unit for his room on the base and eventually got him his own cell and better food.

Other captains said they also had rooms on the Batam base upgraded by local agents paid by shipowners.

Madoginog says he remained on the base until navy officials sent him and the other captains back to their ships after an article about their arrests.

He stayed on his ship by the Batam base until he was convicted in March of illegal anchorage and sentenced to two months in prison.

By the time he got out of jail, Madoginog says, his ship and crew were gone and no one from the company was there to meet him. "They left me behind," he says.

Madoginog says he is not currently working and is receiving treatment for depression after his ordeal.

REUTERS