Pirate attacks fall in 2004<\/p>\n
MALAYSIA: Pirate attacks worldwide fell in 2004 to their lowest
\nnumbers in five years, but scores of seafarers were still killed,
\ninjured or taken hostage, an international group said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Pirates attacked 325 vessels across the globe last year, down
\n27 percent from 445 incidents in 2003, the British-based
\nInternational Maritime Bureau said. It was the lowest annual
\nfigure since 1999, when 300 attacks were reported.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's waters were the most pirate-afflicted, but attacks
\nceased in some areas after December's tsunami because some sea
\nbandits might have been killed, the IMB said in a report issued
\nby its piracy watch center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Ninety-three attacks -- more than a quarter of the worldwide
\ntotal -- were in Indonesia. But that figure did not include
\nanother 37 assaults in the Strait of Malacca, a key shipping lane
\nbetween Indonesia's Sumatra island and peninsular Malaysia.<\/p>\n
However, attacks in Indonesia have declined since 2003, when
\n121 attacks were reported.<\/p>\n
The IMB noted that following the Dec. 26 tsunami pirate
\nattacks halted near the hardest hit parts of Sumatra, where
\ntugboats and barges had been the targets of numerous kidnappings,
\nrobberies and hijack attempts in recent years.<\/p>\n
\"This is probably because some of the pirates may have died
\nduring the tsunami,\" the bureau said. \"It is certainly the case
\nthat many would have lost equipment such as boats and weapons.\"
\n--AP<\/p>",
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