[公告]Pirates back in business in Malacca Strait after tsunami

Security Hijackings and kidnaps start again, writes Marcus Hand in Singapore- Tuesday March 15 2005 THE hijacking and kidnap of two crew from an Indonesian product tanker by heavily armed pirates in the Malacca Strait has stoked fears of maritime terrorism in the region. The 2,396 dwt product tanker Tri Samudra, owned by Humpuss, was hijacked by 35 pirates armed with machine guns and rocket launchers in the Malacca Strait on Saturday at 1755 hrs. Noel Choong, regional manager of the International Maritime Bureau』s piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, said the fully loaded tanker was on a voyage from Samarinda, Kalimantan to Belewan at the time of the attack. While the exact nature of the cargo is unclear, it is understood to have been highly flammable. The pirates ordered the crew to change course from Belewan to Dumai, and some time later left the ship, taking the master and chief engineer as hostage. The vessel arrived late Saturday night in Dumai with the remaining crew members. Capt Choong said that the pirates have since contacted the owners with a ransom demand. The report from the ship on the attack was headed 「Pirate attack/terrorist」 he said. The IMB is however treating the incident purely as an act of piracy, noting that the modus operandi is the same as previous hijackings in the Strait, including the Highline 26 earlier this month. The owners believe the hijackers were from the Free Aceh Movement or GAM. While in this case the IMB believes the hijacking was perpetrated by the same group responsible for a series of kidnap and ransom cases involving tugs and barges, the type of vessel that was hijacked has sparked fears that terrorists could hijack a similar type of tanker and turn it into a floating bomb. 「What if terrorists learn how to attack a ship like this?」 said a maritime terrorism expert. 「The ship was fully loaded with flammable cargo and this is the ideal size for a terrorist attack」 — a scenario that Indonesia』s neighbour Singapore takes extremely seriously. Another industry official involved in the fight against piracy agreed. 「You need to have a small sized ship,」 he said. A vessel such as a small tanker of few thousand tones with a highly flammable cargo such as jet fuel was seen as ideal. While much is made of the idea of hijacking a VLCC, it would simply be too large to ram into shore based facilities, and would likely ground before reaching the shore. In a sign that the temporary piracy calm that followed the Asian tsunami on December 26 is well and truly over, a third hijacking and kidnapping took place in the Malacca Strait on Monday. A Japanese tugboat, Idaten, was attacked on Monday evening 39nm south west of the Island of Penang. The master, chief engineer and chief officer, two of who were Japanese and one Filipino, were kidnapped in the attack an official involved in the fight against piracy said. The crew had managed to send out a distress call, AFP reported, and the IMB in Kuala Lumpur had given the information to the Malaysian marine police to send a patrol boat to intercept the attack. （資料來源：英國 Lloyds List 海事日報）