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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1365046/posts

"Malaysia stands firm against foreign gunboats in Malacca Strait"
Channel News Asia ^ | March 17, 2005

Posted on 03/17/2005 4:16:24 PM PST by snowsislander

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Malaysian marine police have suggested that the kidnappers could be Indonesian rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been waging a separatist revolt in the north of Sumatra island since 1976.

But Najib said he did not know if this was the case. "I don't know. It is a police matter. Whoever they are, irrespective if they are Acehenese or whoever, action must be taken against them."

GAM spokesman Sofyan Daud has denied the rebels were behind the attack.

The tug was on its way from Indonesia's Batam island to Myanmar on Monday when the pirates kidnapped 56-year-old captain Nobuo Inoue, 50-year-old chief engineer Shunji Kuroda and a Filipino crewman identified by Manila as Sangdang Paliawan, 31.

In an earlier raid in the strait last weekend, a gang of 35 pirates armed with machine guns and rocket launchers boarded the Indonesian-registered gas tanker Tri Samudra and kidnapped the captain and the chief engineer.

The kidnappers have already demanded a ransom of two billion rupiah (214,000 dollars) from the owners, Humpuss Intermoda Transport."