Pirates hijack Indonesian chemical tanker

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Gunmen armed with rocket launchers have stormed a chemical tanker in the Strait of Malacca at the weekend in an unusually daring attack, raising initial fears of a terrorist attack, an anti-piracy centre says.

Thirty-five pirates boarded the MT Tri Samudra, laden with an unknown flammable chemical, on Saturday, briefly taking control of the ship before making off with the captain and chief engineer who were being held for ransom, the centre said.

At the time of the attack, the Indonesian-owned ship was sailing for the Indonesian port of Belawan in the strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. More than a quarter of global trade and almost all of Japan and China's oil imports pass through the strait.

"It's the first time they have taken control of a ship like this for a long time... a couple of years maybe," said Noel Choong, regional manager of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, on Monday.

He pointed out that pirates in the strait usually only seize softer targets like tug-boats that were slower and lower in the water, making them easy to board, Choong said.

After the pirates left with the captain and chief engineer, the ship sailed for the nearer Indonesian port of Dumai, southeast of Belawan along the coast of Sumatra island, he said. No one was injured in the attack.

"The (ransom) negotiations are underway," Choong said. He declined to give any details of the ransom demand.

One of the nightmare scenarios envisioned by security experts is where militants seize a tanker carrying highly flammable liquid, such as the Tri Samudra, and ram it into a port.

The three countries policing the strait -- Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore -- launched coordinated naval patrols last year in a bid to better secure the strait against piracy and potential militant attacks, but attacks on shipping are still on the rise according to the International Maritime Bureau.

I think the pirates are still around, a lot of it occurs in the Strait of Malacca:

South Asian Pirates Back On the Rampage

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503170020.html

March 17, 2005

Piracy did not end with the demise of Blackbeard, the world’s most famous pirate, almost three hundred years ago. Despite the overall decline, South Asian seas remain infested with pirate ships preying on merchant vessels that pass through busy choke points in large numbers. The Strait of Malacca between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the shortest sea route connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans, is the target of most such raids.
“The Malacca Strait is the busiest strait in the world. Something like 50-thousand ships a year travel through it,” says Dana Robert Dillon, a South Asia analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a research organization in Washington, says piracy can be linked to corrupt governments and is most prevalent in the waters of South Asia.

“On the edges of the Malacca Strait, especially the southeastern edge is Indonesia, which is rated as one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, the rule of law is extremely weak. They have just gone through a long democratic transition, which was successful, but the rule of law is weak.”

Mr. Dillon says in addition to robbing merchant vessels of their cargo, pirates commonly abduct members of the crew for ransom. He says most of the pirates in the Malacca Strait are Indonesian.

“Some of them may be the terrorists from the Free Aceh movement. Some of them are just fishermen. Some of them are just robbers, plain old fashioned robbers. A lot of the piracy that takes place actually is just kidnapping. They stop the ship and kidnap the crew and hold them ransom until the company that owns the boat pays the ransom. Some of it is real piracy and a small portion is actual terrorism.”

Indonesia’s Free Aceh separatist group, also known as GAM, is based on the northern tip of the Sumatra Island. Insurgents seeking independence often attack ships to put political pressure on the Indonesian government, or to make money to fund the movement. But the International Maritime Bureau reports pirates sometimes blame separatists for their own attacks.

The International Maritime Bureau has issued warnings to shipping companies, and security measures on ships have increased since September-eleven. Industry sources say new technology, such as tracking satellites and electrified fencing to prevent unauthorized boarding, can help to fight piracy. But some ship owners find these devices too expensive and prefer to take their chances or pay a ransom privately when an incident does occur. And so the raids have continued and, according to some analysts, even increased before the tsunami sank a number of pirate vessels. This week’s kidnappings indicate the pirates are back.

John Burnett, author of the book “Dangerous Waters: Modern Piracy and Terror on the High Seas,” says the Malacca Strait is a likely target for international terrorists because it is one of the most strategic and vital waterways.

“Most of China and Japan’s oil from the Persian Gulf transit the Malacca Strait. It is a little more than a mile-wide at its narrowest and these oil carriers carrying 300-thousand tons of crude oil are vulnerable and are the soft targets. They are the longest-hanging fruit of world commerce, if you will.”

John Burnett, who was once captured by pirates himself, says if terrorists seize one of the five-hundred or so ships passing through every day, they could block the strait and cause an economic catastrophe. For example, “if there is no oil delivered to Japan, or it takes an extra three, or four, or five days to deliver oil to Japan or to China and to Korea, then you are going to have a serious economic global setback because these are the main economic engines in Asia,” he says.

After the September-eleven attacks, the United States offered to send its patrol boats to help reinforce security in the strait, but the three countries bordering it rejected the offer on the grounds that it would violate their territorial sovereignty. This protectiveness aids attackers, says John Burnett. If discovered by a security patrol in Singapore, for example, they can escape into the waters of Indonesia where Singapore’s forces cannot pursue them.

Analysts note it takes an international effort to fight global terrorism and the Malacca Strait is one of the places that needs it the most.

VOA News

I found another article on it..

Source link

Pirates storm Indonesian tanker

BBC - Pirates have attacked a gas tanker in the Malacca Strait, kidnapping its captain and chief engineer for ransom, a watchdog said.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said about 35 pirates with rocket launchers stormed the Indonesian-owned MT Tri Samudra late on Saturday.

They diverted the Belawan-bound vessel to a different part of Sumatra, before disappearing with the hostages.

The shipowners are trying to negotiate the hostages' release, the IMB says.

The narrow Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes and has long been a haunt of pirates.

Some 37 acts of piracy were recorded there last year but there has been a sharp fall in reported attacks after December's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the Malaysia-based bureau says.

Some experts say the giant waves could have killed many pirates and destroyed their boats, while others believe the large presence of international troops in the region has deterred attacks.

The 1,289-ton MT Tri Samudra was carrying a cargo of methane gas from Samarinda in Borneo island to Sumatra's Belawan when it was stormed.

"The pirates attacked the ship... and ordered it to sail to Dumai," IMB's regional manager Noel Choong told the AFP news agency.

"During the journey to Dumai the captain and engineer were kidnapped and taken off the ship," Mr Choong said.

He added that the vessel's owners believed the hijackers could be rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), which has been fighting for independence for Sumatra's northern Aceh province.

"If this is a terrorist attack it will have severe consequences on the security of the ports in the region," Mr Choong said.

"It looks like they [pirates] are becoming very daring and they are moving away from the... coastal attacks towards the one sea and towards Malaysian waters," he said.

end article..

So.. It was a cargo ship full of METHANE...

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