Kidnappings for new trend for pirates: Bureau<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
In a disturbing new trend, sea hijackings and kidnappings for
\nransom in the busy shipping lane between Malaysia and Indonesia
\nare on the rise, a watchdog group said Monday.<\/p>\n
\"The fight against piracy is threatened by a new trend that
\nhas seen pirates demanding ransom for the release of kidnapped
\ncrew members,\" the International Maritime Bureau's Kuala Lumpur-
\nbased piracy watch center said in its latest report.<\/p>\n
Two such cases occurred in two months in the Malacca Straits
\naround Indonesia's Aceh province, where separatists are fighting
\nthe government for an independent homeland, and there may have
\nbeen more cases which were not reported because ship owners were
\nthreatened, the report says.<\/p>\n
The agency said the separatist Free Aceh Movement has
\nthreatened to disrupt shipping in the straits, the narrow channel
\nbetween peninsula Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra Island which
\nis one of the world's busiest sea lanes and also considered the
\nmost pirate-infested.<\/p>\n
Worldwide, 253 attacks were reported between Jan. 1 and the
\nend of September, compared to 294 attacks in the same period in
\n2000, the bureau said.<\/p>\n
While attacks overall were fewer, the number of hijackings
\nmore than doubled, from six in the first nine months of 2000 to
\n15 in the same period this year. And the number of times crews
\nwere taken hostage also increased, from 132 times in the first
\nnine months of 2000 to 205 times in the same period this year.<\/p>\n
Pirates were also more commonly using guns during their
\nattacks. According to the report, 34 pirate attacks involved guns
\nin the first nine months of 200, compared to 50 in 2001.<\/p>\n
The report recorded fewer pirate attacks in Indonesia and the
\nMalacca Straits in the first nine months of 2001 compared to
\n2000.<\/p>\n
In the period covered by the report, there were 71 actual and
\nattempted attacks reported in Indonesia, 14 in the Malacca
\nStraits and 15 in Malaysia, the agency said. This compared to 90
\nattacks in Indonesia, 32 in the Malacca Straits and 15 in
\nMalaysia for the same period in 2000.<\/p>\n
Indonesia by far still has the worst piracy problem, with the
\nnext-nearest number of attacks occurring in India, which had 22
\nattacks in the period covered by the report.<\/p>\n
Attacks in the Philippines rose from two in the first nine
\nmonths of 2000 to seven in the same period this year, the agency
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Last year, a record 469 piracy incidents were reported
\nworldwide, an increase of 56 percent over 1999 and more than four
\ntimes the number reported in 1991. Some 72 ship crew members were
\nkilled and 99 injured in 2000, up from 3 killed and 24 injured a
\nyear earlier.<\/p>",
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