REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUPANG -- The government does not need to conduct diplomacy to sink foreign boats caught illegally poaching fish in the country's waters, stated an international law professor from the Nusa Cendana University in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

"The law has been clear. No diplomacy or permit is needed (to sink the boats) because they have deliberately and intentionally entered our territory to fish illegally. They know they are breaking the law, but they continue to do it," Dr D.W. Thadeus informed Antara here on Thursday.

The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries plans to sink 16 foreign boats, which were caught fishing illegally in the country's waters, next week.

Thadeus affirmed that the ministry's plan must be supported by the concerned agencies, including the navy and marine police, as the boats had trespassed into the Indonesian territory and had also conducted illegal fishing and harmed the marine ecosystem of the country.

In view of this, the marine affairs and fisheries ministry's plan must be carried out as quickly as possible, he emphasized.

He believed that the action would slowly deter foreign fishermen from conducting illegal fishing in the country's waters.

He said the step was an act of statehood, and as a developing country, Indonesia must defend itself from thefts of its natural resources by foreign fishermen.

"The government must also raise the illegal fishing issue in the international forum," he added.

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