12 arrested for damaging dredger in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

A total of 12 people have been placed under arrest in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, for deliberately damaging a dredger slated to perform sand mining work just off the province’s Port of Makassar.

The incident occurred on Saturday, September 12, when a group claiming to belong to a local environment-oriented NGO attempted to prevent the trailing suction hopper dredger Queen of the Netherlands from sailing out to a sand-mining site in South Sulawesi’s Takalar Regency.

The perpetrators, who were on board small boats, approached the dredger and lobbed stones and petrol bombs, causing damage as well as several fires to ignite on the larger vessel.

Some of the perpetrators managed to get in close and sever the dredger’s pneumatic cables.

Local police soon arrived in the area to maintain order as the damaged vessel returned to Makassar. However, only 12 out of the estimated hundreds of people who attempted to prevent the dredger from sailing out have been arrested.

No injuries have been reported among the crew of Queen of the Netherlands, which is owned by Boskalis Westminster Shipping and operated by Boskalis Indonesia.