There are a number of security issues in the archipelagic waters of Indonesia. There is always the problem of foreign fishing vessels poaching in the Indonesian archipelagic waters. Recently, primarily due to the weaknesses of the Indonesian law enforcement at sea, it has been estimated that illegal fishing in Indonesian waters are catching more fish than the legal fishing. While Indonesian export of fish was estimated at about US$ 1,7 billion a year, the lost of Indonesia due to illegal fishing has been estimated at between US$ 2 - 4 billion. Within the last six months, 148 foreign fishing vessels have been arrested for illegal fishing, 70% of them are Thais (Media Indonesia, October 5, 2002). Some of them have even been burnt at sea by angry local traditional fishermen. This has caused a tremendous problem for the Indonesian Government and has caused depletion of fishery resources in certain parts of Indonesian archipelago, particularly in the western parts. At the same time, and partly due to this depletion of the resources and the intrusion of illegal foreign fishing vessels, the rivalries and conflicts have also developed between the Indonesian neighboring districts and provinces in their competition to seek and exploit the fishery resources near their coasts.

　

Another security issues in the Indonesian archipelagic waters is the problems of armed robberies at sea, particularly in the heavily navigated waterways in the western parts of Indonesia, such as in the Karimata Straits, in the Malaka and Singapore Straits, as well as in the South China Sea. The frequencies of these armed robberies to a large extents also depends on (1) the capability of the law enforcement agencies of Indonesia, (2) on the effectiveness of cooperation with neighboring countries to eliminate the danger of armed robberies, and (3) on the supports and cooperation of the user states and the international community. Generally, when Indonesia is facing serious economic difficulties, thus has less budget and resources for law enforcement at sea, the armed robberies would also commensurately increase. This is the area where the user states' cooperation and supports are essential.

　

The other security problems in the archipelagic waters include the destructions of the marine environment, either (1) as the result of pollution from ships, or (2) from land based sources, or (3) from the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas from the seabed, or (4) from the destruction of coastal areas as the result of illegal mining for mineral resources or for land reclamation, or (5) as the result of the destruction of coral reefs, mangroves, and other spawning ground of fisheries resources due to illegal fishing practices. Again, the degradation of these resources and the environment is significantly dependent upon the availability of effective and efficient law enforcement agencies. Again, as the economic condition of Indonesia deteriorates, the capabilities of the law enforcement agencies also decline, and the marine environmental condition also deteriorates accordingly. This situation is accentuated further by the existing laws that aauthorize various and different agencies to enforce the different laws, which, in some cases, lead to rivalries among certain law enforcement agencies.

　

There are also issues of security which are caused by (1) the general degradation of the economic condition in the country, (2) by the increasing problems in the relations between and among the neighboring countries, (3) by the rivalries of the various law enforcement agencies at sea in Indonesia, and (4) by the increasing trans-national crimes. at sea, either as the result of armed smuggling, illegal immigrants, trans-national terrorism, illicit traffic in drugs, and people smuggling, and other similar crimes. These issues may be accentuated in the future in the archipelagic waters in south-east Asia, particularly due to (1) their strategic location between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, and between the Asian and Australian mainlands, (2) their archipelagic nature with lengthy and porous coastlines, (3) the current political condition which are experiencing democratisation process, openness and transparencies, as well as the increasing devolution of powers from the central government to local authorities, (4) the current economic decline, (5) the increasing dangers of national, regional, or international terrorism, and (6) the decreasing capacities of the law enforcement agencies to deal with these problems due to budgetary and financial shortcomings.

　

There are of course other traditional security issues in the archipelagic waters of Indonesia, such as the 'danger' or 'potential danger' of foreign military vessels or military aircraft passing through the heart of Indonesian archipelagic waters, including in and over the archipelagic sea lanes. While these dangers have to be continuously monitored, their danger to some extent, hopefully, have been managed by the creation of archipelagic sea lanes through international organization and by the demise of the cold war. Although the security issues in this regard also relates to problems of national defence, the problems of safety in and over the sea lanes concern also law enforcement agencies in many respects.

　

In conclusion, there are a lot of security and environmental issues within Indonesian archipelagic waters. While these are matters within the sovereignty and jurisdiction of Indonesia to deal with, yet they also involve the protection and the interest of other states in the Indonesian archipelagic waters, particularly with regard to the need to protect and safeguard the safety of navigation and shipping through the Indonesian waters, either in innocent passage or in archipelagic sea lanes passage. While Indonesia will continue to protect and promote this safety in accordance with its means and capacities, other user states of the Indonesian archipelagic waters, particularly Japan, for their own sake as well, should also cooperate and assist Indonesian law enforcement agencies in increasing their capabilities to protect the safety and security of navigation and the environment of the Indonesian archipelagic waters.

　

So far there has been certain cooperation between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore with Japan to promote safety of navigation in the Straits of Malaka and Singapore by, among others, providing better navigational aids, establishing traffic separation schemes, conducting joint hydrographic surveys to produce better and more accurate charts, establishing procedures for reporting the presence of vessels in navigating the straits, establishing "revolving fund" to combat marine pollution from ships, and others. There have also been bilateral cooperation between the three coastal countries to coordinate their patrols in the straits in combating armed robberies. Yet, not much cooperation between the four countries with regard to the protection of the marine environment. Neither other user states have shown much interest in cooperating and assisting the coastal countries in promoting safety of navigation as well as in protecting the marine environment in accordance with Article 43 of UNCLOS. Much less, and in fact practically non existent, cooperation has been shown by the user states, including Japan, to promote safety of navigation as well as the protection of the marine environment from pollution from ships in the other parts of Indonesian archipelagic waters, despite the fact that the user states are navigating those waters extensively.