Three Divers Make Daring Escape From Indonesian Custody

Three Southern Californians, including an Orange resident, who had been held for more than two months in Indonesia on charges of illegally entering that country’s territorial waters, escaped in a stolen fishing boat to Singapore where they were able to board flights back to the United States, group members said Wednesday.

Eight others, including three Californians, are still being held by Indonesian authorities, according to Danny Commerford, 38, a building inspector from Orange and one of those who escaped.

Cliff Craft, 43, a building inspector from Whittier, led the daring escape. Pat Gibson, 47, of Van Nuys joined in the escape with Commerford and Craft.

Commerford, sounding weary during an interview Wednesday night, said he was “very concerned” about his friends who remain in Indonesia.

“We need extreme pressure to be put on Indonesia from the governments of the United States, Australia and England, because they haven’t done anything wrong,” Commerford said.

“I feel a lot better now that I’m home. But I have some regrets that I have left some friends there,” he said.

Craft said he, too, is “very concerned” for the safety of the remaining eight men in Indonesia.

“They’re due in court right now,” he said, noting that it was 9 a.m. in Indonesia.

The men are still on a hunger strike begun last week, Craft said. He said the hunger strike was his second and that he had lost 25 pounds while detained, dropping from 230 pounds to 205.

The daring escape was executed Saturday evening, Craft said, after he “managed to get money on my American Express card. Don’t leave home without it.”

The entire party had been in international waters off Indonesia The escape came, Cliff Craft said, after he ‘managed to get money on my American Express card. Don’t leave home without it.’

on a scuba diving expedition at the time of their arrests, Craft said. He said their chartered boat was boarded “at gunpoint” by Indonesian authorities.

The 11 men were charged with “seeking scientific knowledge” in Indonesia’s “exclusive economic zone,” an area extending 200 miles from the country’s shoreline, Craft said. They were confined to the boat for 51 days after their March 22 arrest, he said.

They were then allowed to go ashore, but their movements were confined to trips between their boat and a hotel, where they were allowed to stay, he said.

“We came here on a diving holiday,” Craft told The Times while he was still being held in Indonesia. “We are not criminals. We do not deserve to be detained. This makes a mockery of the most basic forms of justice.”

Back in Whittier on Wednesday, Craft said: “In 70 days, we spent a total of 90 minutes in court. I would rather come home in a body bag than spend one more day in Indonesia.”

Commerford said he is convinced that “the Indonesians are trying to pull an extortion play,” that government officials wanted to extract about $400,000 from the group to secure their release.

“But then the case went to court and it drew international pressure and international attention,” Commerford said. “They had to convict us of a crime that we didn’t commit or find some way to save face.

“I had a lawyer tell me that all officials in Indonesia are corrupt. The legal system is nothing. . . . Money is the only thing that matters in Indonesia. I’m not ever going back to Indonesia, obviously,” he said.

Craft said that Indonesian security officers had difficulty maintaining surveillance on the arrested men when they broke up into small groups.

Stole a Boat

“When they weren’t watching, we went to the harbor and stole a 14-foot wooden fishing boat with a 12-horsepower outboard motor,” he said. “Its maximum speed was 4 or 5 knots.”

The men were being held in Tanjungpinang on Bintan Island. They sailed to Batam Island and set out across the Strait of Malacca to Singapore, about 20 miles away, Craft said.

“We were ducking in and out of patrol boats and ships in the area,” he said. “Wakes from large ships could easily have sunk us. But our low-profile wood boat wouldn’t show up on radar.”

Craft said his party had to avoid patrols from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia as well as “customs and immigration boats, harbor patrol boats and navy patrol boats” during the four-hour trip across the strait.

“It was a very intense trip,” Craft said. “The water was real choppy, the wind was blowing and we had to avoid wakes from passing boats. I felt that at any moment the engine could go. Had it gone, we would have been history.”

Craft said they abandoned the boat in the Singapore harbor and made their way “through the bushes” to a highway “about 4,000 mosquito bites later.”

The group went to the American Embassy, he said, where they were able to get the temporary travel papers that were necessary because their passports were still in Indonesia. They used their return airline tickets to the United States to board a flight in Singapore. Eighteen hours later, at 12 a.m. on Monday, they arrived in Los Angeles.

The other Californians still in Indonesian custody are Jim Vorus of Santa Monica and Bob and Bruce Lanhan of Pleasant Hill. Also being held are three Australians and the chartered boat’s British captain and Iranian cook.