Maritime authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia have recently cooperated to impound a Chinese-flagged dredger and arrested its crew on suspicion of illegally scavenging for valuable metals on the wrecks of numerous ships sunk during World War II.

Historians point out that as the remains of the crew remain aboard the vessels, they are recognized as war graves and are protected by law.

An Indonesian Navy warship detained the Chuan Hong 68 in early May, the second time the ship had been apprehended in as many months.

The 8,000-ton vessel was first detained on April 20 off the Riau Islands on suspicion the crew was carrying out illegal dredging activities. Two days later, the ship managed to evade the Indonesian authorities and fled into Malaysian waters.

Subsequently seized by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, The Jakarta Post has reported that the Chuan Hong had been chartered by a Malaysian company, while images showed scrap metal covering the deck of the ship.

Many wrecks

Authorities believe the metal comes from the wreck of the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Sagiri, which was sunk by a torpedo from a Dutch submarine in December 1941 with the loss of 121 of her 241-strong crew.

The Chinese vessel is believed to have also partly salvaged the Japanese troop ship Hiyoshi Maru and the converted passenger liner Katori Maru, both sunk by the Dutch submarine K-XIV off Borneo in December 1941. All three wrecks are registered war graves.

Among the dozens of wartime wrecks in the region are two of the most iconic Royal Navy ships in history. HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales were sunk by Japanese aircraft just days after the Japanese attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor.

Both ships turned over as they sank, with Repulse now at a depth of 183 feet and the Prince of Wales at 223 feet of water. Some 508 officers and men went down with HMS Repulse, while a further 327 were killed aboard HMS Prince of Wales.

The wrecks are still Crown property and designated as a Protected Place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

Despite legal protection, the wrecks have been extensively salvaged. Made of phosphor bronze, the massive propellers would have earned a bumper payday for the scrap metal merchants. The scrap price for phosphor bronze is around 4,370 euros ($4,900) per ton, with each of the eight propellers weighing an estimated 15 tons.

The large sums involved spur illegal scrap metal scavengers to take to undersea looting of the wrecks in the waters around Southeast Asian nations like Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Valuable metal stripped

Having stripped the wrecks of those components, the scavengers have now started to take other ferrous metals, primarily copper from boilers as well as large chunks of steel, such as the propeller shafts, and high-grade aluminum.

The long legacy of land mines No safety in numbers There is no exact information on how many land mines contaminate the ground, but the number is estimated to be in the tens of millions. Lingering long after the guns of war fall silent, they hold hostage life and land. There are currently 162 parties to the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which aims to prohibit the "use, stockpiling, production and transfer" of anti-personnel mines.

The long legacy of land mines The future of mine clearing? It not only looks like a dandelion seed, but is equally powered by the follies of the wind. Called a "Mine Kafon" or "mine exploder", it is the brainchild of Afghani Massoud Hassani. His invention of 175 circular plastic plates attached to bamboo poles, is inexpensive to make and is wind-powered. The height and weight of an average man, it is designed to blow across landscapes detonating mines.

The long legacy of land mines A product in evolution Inspired by Hassani's childhood experience of making wind-powered toys, the Mine Kafon has, with the help of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, undergone significant prototyping and testing. An R&D team is now honing the design to make it safe and suitable for all terrains. "Mine Kafon is not only an anti-land mine device; it opens a discussion of global awareness" - Massoud Hassani

The long legacy of land mines From the top down The designer is also working on the Mine Kafron Drone, which can detect the hidden weapons using sensors and grab them with a retractable arm before taking them to a safe place for detonation. Massoud Hassani says the invention, which is still in the optimization stage, is safer, faster and infinitely less expensive than existing technologies, and could result in a mine-free world in ten years.

The long legacy of land mines A nose for danger Belgian NGO APOPO breeds mine detection rats that are deployed to sniff out the deadly devices in various countries around the world. The animals, which have an extremely strong sense of smell, are trained to detect TNT, thereby speeding up mine clearance efforts and allowing communities to reclaim and resuse their land. The NGO says no rats have died as a result of their work.

The long legacy of land mines Sniffing out the past Another animal used to clear mines is man's best friend. After months of training, they too are able to detect the scent of explosives. The Marshall Legacy Institute launched its dog program in 1999. Since then the animals have searched almost 11,000 acres of contaminated land. It now has more than 900 canines working in 24 countries around the world.

The long legacy of land mines Armed for ancient conflict It looks like a combination between a tank and a combine harvester, and that's not far off in terms of purpose. This Aardvark mine clearence machine is equipped with 72 chains that hit the ground, exploding mines on contact, without damaging either the vehicle or the driver. The machine clears everything in its path and can cover an area equivalent to four football fields per day.

The long legacy of land mines Long-lasting dangers Once buried, land mines can remain active for more than 50 years, not only posing physical threats to those who come into contact with them, but also hampering the repatriation of refugees and displaced people, and slowing the process of development and reconstruction in post-conflict years.

The long legacy of land mines Life-changing injuries With only 11 countries - including China and Russia - that continue to produce land mines, huge progress has been made since the adoption of the Ottowa Treaty. But there are still challenges ahead, for as long as they remain in the ground, they will kill, maim, and cause disfigurement. Almost always to civilians during peace time.



Vessels constructed before 1942 had steel that was smelted before atomic weapons tests put radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere, with "low-background" metal valuable for sensitive scientific instruments.

When David Yiu, director of Singapore-based Friendly Waters Seasports Pte., dived on HMS Repulse in 2015, he found the vessel had been rigged with home-made explosives and fuses that were just waiting to be detonated.

"There are bodies in these ships and they should be respected as war graves," Yiu told DW. "The ships are of historic significance because the men that are still inside them gave their lives for their countries.

"Now, any human remains that the dredgers bring up are simply tossed overboard or dumped on the land somewhere when they get back to port," he said. "It's desecration."

Yiu has campaigned for years for better protection of the wrecks in the region, but fears the ocean is too large and government-level interest in the problem too limited for the recent arrests to have any sort of impact over the longer term.

He also claims that government corruption in the region has in the past meant that crews caught illegally operating on sunken ships have been quickly released, possibly after bribes have changed hands.

A tough task

Steven Schwankert, a Beijing-based maritime historian and author of "Poseidon: China's secret salvage of Britain's lost submarine," agrees the authorities have a huge task.

"While, of course, we want maritime officials to protect wrecks - especially war graves - the ocean is big and it takes significant resources to do so, especially if the wrecks are far offshore and not part of normal patrol routes," he said.

"The enforcement of admiralty law, fines and, potentially, jail sentences raise the risk and reduce the reward for illegal salvors," he said. "Hopefully this case will discourage this kind of activity."

A keen diver himself, Schwankert said there have been recent cases in Southeast Asia in which recreational divers have gone to the site of a wreck only to discover that it has been reduced to a small pile of debris or, on occasions, disappeared entirely.

"Divers are the primary visitors to the world's submerged cemeteries and almost all of them treat such sites with respect," he said. "To see war graves and the final resting place of those who lost their lives on the sea pillaged is heartbreaking."