According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the request was sent to the captain of the ship "Mirna" owned by the "Losinjska plovidba" shipping company from Rijeka. The captain refused saying that there was no reason for the transfer of the ship from the city port into the navy base.
The Croatian embassy said in a statement, which was cited by the Foreign Ministry, that the Mirna ship had been anchored in the Sarabuyi port of Tanjung Perak for nearly 12 months. The transfer of the ship from the city port would make the ship less visible to the public and the media, the statement said adding that the transfer posed a threat to the security and the lives of crew members.
According to the Ministry and the Rijeka shipping company, the Mirna was hired to transport logs loaded in an Indonesian port on the island of Papua. As it was leaving the port in August 2004, the ship was stopped by the Indonesian navy, which established that the ship did not have proper documents and escorted it to the port of Surabaya, where it held the vessel under its control.
Early in 2005 a trial started against the captain of the ship who was charged with navigating the ship with improper documents. In April a verdict was passed imposing on him a fine of US$2,200. The fine was paid, which on May 6 made the verdict final and the ship and its crew were officially free to leave Indonesia, but this did not happen.
The Croatian Embassy in Jakarta has officially requested the Indonesian Foreign Ministry to respect court rulings, urging the executive authorities to stop obstructing the implementation of court decisions and allow the ship to leave the country.
Representatives of the Indonesian state institutions involved in the case on August 20 adopted conclusions of which they informed the Croatian Embassy last Sunday. The Croatian Embassy in turn informed them that the Rijeka company had accepted the request of the Indonesian authorities to pay around one million US dollars as security during the further court proceedings, so that the ship could leave the country.
On Monday afternoon an Indonesian war ship with guns pointed at the "Mirna" circled the ship and on Tuesday morning some 200 navy personnel forcibly impounded the ship, accompanied by representatives of the state prosecutor's office and the head of the Surabaya port authorities. With a gun pointed at his head, the ship's captain was told to sign a document in the Indonesian language, which he refused to do without the presence of an attorney and an official interpreter. The navy personnel then left the ship, but 12 soldiers stayed on the ship, the Ministry said in the statement.