Wartime shipwrecks are being illegally salvaged. Are we powerless to stop it?

Second world war ships, most of which are war graves, are vanishing from the Java Sea, yet the Indonesian government says nothing can be done. It is true?

Two weeks ago, a Dutch expedition preparing a 75th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of the Java Sea found only holes on the seafloor where the ships used to be. The Dutch ships HMNLS De Ruyter and HMNLS Java are "completely missing" and a large section of HMNLS Kortenaer has been stripped away. The same has been confirmed for HMS Exeter and HMS Encounter, as well as sections missing from HMS Electra. The US submarine Perch is also completely gone. While the Perch sank without its crew on board, the other vessels are war graves.

Related: Mystery as wrecks of three Dutch WWII ships vanish from Java seabed