3 Calif. Divers in Bold Escape From Indonesia

Three Southern Californians 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, the group’s leader said Wednesday.

Eight others, including three Californians, are still being held by Indonesian authorities, said Cliff Craft, a building inspector from Whittier who led the escape.

Craft, 43, who arrived home Monday, said he was “very concerned” about the others.

“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.”

Danny Commerford, 38, of Orange and Pat Gibson, 47, of Van Nuys escaped with Craft.

The entire party had been in international waters off Indonesia on a scuba diving expedition at the time of their arrest, Craft said, when 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.”

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

“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. “It’s 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 U.S. to board a flight in Singapore. Eighteen hours later, at 12 a.m. on Monday, they arrived in Los Angeles.