JP\/14\/M01<\/p>\n
Lawrence Bartlett, Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
While western tourists, expatriates and diplomats are the
\nfocus of fears over new terrorist attacks in Asia, analysts warn
\nthat shipping in the vital Malacca Straits could be a prime
\ntarget.<\/p>\n
A bombing on the scale of that in Bali on Oct. 12 which killed
\nnearly 200 people, mainly westerners, could be difficult to
\nrepeat partly because of heightened awareness and warnings issued
\nby western countries, they say.<\/p>\n
But the Malacca Strait, one of the world's most important sea
\npassages, linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and the
\nPacific, is a \"target rich environment\", says Ross Babbage,
\nstrategy and defense expert at Australian National University.<\/p>\n
The strait, which is about 500 miles (800 kilometers) long and
\nis pinched to just a few miles (kilometers) wide at some points,
\nfunnels some 50,000 ships a year between Indonesia's troubled
\nSumatra Island and the Malay peninsula, past the key port of
\nSingapore.<\/p>\n
It has for centuries been a hunting ground for pirates, and it
\nnow carries modern treasures for terrorists wanting to hurt the
\nworld economy -- such as more than 10 billion barrels per day of
\noil to Japan, South Korea, China and other Pacific Rim countries.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says it is
\nconsidered to be the \"key choke point in Asia\".<\/p>\n
\"If the strait were closed, nearly half of the world's fleet
\nwould be required to sail further, generating a substantial
\nincrease in the requirement for vessel capacity.<\/p>\n
\"Closure of the Strait of Malacca would immediately raise
\nfreight rates worldwide.\"<\/p>\n
The oil supertankers and huge container ships trundling
\nthrough the strait daily are sitting ducks for the sort of deadly
\nseaborne attacks carried out against the USS Cole in Yemen, two
\nyears to the day before the Bali blast, and against the Limburg
\noil tanker off Yemen on Oct. 6.<\/p>\n
The Cole, and apparently the Limburg, were each targeted by a
\nsmall boat laden with explosives -- the type of assault that
\ncould be launched from hundreds of hide-aways on coasts lining
\nthe strait.<\/p>\n
\"If there was to be a successful attack in the Malacca Strait
\nit would potentially have broader strategic consequences which
\nterrorist groups might like to achieve,\" Babbage told AFP.<\/p>\n
\"It's one thing to blow up a tanker off the Yemen coast where
\nit doesn't really matter that much because its a long way from
\nanywhere, but if someone blew up something in the Strait of
\nMalacca it could be pretty horrendous.\"<\/p>\n
Andrew Tan, a security analyst with Singapore's Institute of
\nDefense and Strategic Studies, agreed that the threat was real,
\nbut said anti-piracy patrols and cooperation between the navies
\nand maritime police forces of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia
\n\"is actually quite good\".<\/p>\n
However, pirate raids still occur in the Strait, and if a
\nterrorist attack took the form of launching a small boat packed
\nwith explosives at an oil tanker \"there's not much you can do
\nabout it,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"The key to combating terrorism is really to deal with the
\nnetworks that exist before these attacks are carried out.
\nMalaysia and Singapore have made arrests (of members of Jemaah
\nIslamiyah), the problem is Indonesia.\"<\/p>\n
Jemaah Islamiyah, a suspect in the Bali blast, is believed to
\nbe linked to the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n
Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at Australian
\nNational University, said he was also concerned about the
\npossibility of a ship being hijacked in the strait and driven
\ninto another vessel, such as a U.S. warship.<\/p>\n
\"It would be relatively easy to hijack a ship. Nowadays there
\nare sometimes very small crews and some very big ships only have
\neight people on board.\"<\/p>\n
The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) last week proposed two
\nradical initiatives in a bid to beat piracy, hijacking and
\nterrorist attacks: electric fences for ships and specially
\nprotected channels for oil tankers.<\/p>\n
The London-based organization, which has its Piracy Reporting
\nCenter in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, said the number of
\nattacks on ships reported worldwide in the first nine months of
\nthis year was 271, up from 253 in the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Hijackings by organized crime syndicates were also up, from 15
\nto 20.<\/p>\n
Indonesian waters experienced the highest number of piracy
\nattacks overall, with 72 incidents reported.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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