Pirates hijack Indonesian cargo ship<\/p>\n
Associated Press, Kuala Lumpur<\/p>\n
Pirates hijacked a tin-laden Indonesian ship traveling to
\nSingapore and held the crew captive for two days while unloading
\nthe cargo in a Malaysian port, a maritime watchdog said on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
The pirates, believed to be Indonesians, fired gunshots at the
\nship and boarded it Friday shortly after it had left Muntok port
\non the southern tip of Sumatra island, said Noel Choong, head of
\nthe International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in
\nKuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n
They ordered the crew to sail to Pasir Gudang port in
\nMalaysia's southern Johor state, where the vessel docked for two
\ndays while the crew hauled the cargo into a warehouse, Choong
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"The crew members were warned they would be killed if they
\ndidn't cooperate,\" Choong said.<\/p>\n
The pirates eventually took the ship back into Indonesian
\nwaters and escaped in a speedboat, leaving the crew uninjured,
\nChoong said.<\/p>\n
After the incident was reported, officials checked the
\nwarehouse and found the cargo intact.<\/p>\n
\"We are baffled over what happened,\" Choong said. \"They went
\nthrough all that trouble to steal the cargo, but it was still
\nthere in Pasir Gudang.\"<\/p>\n
However, the incident raised concerns about port security in
\nPasir Gudang because the pirates had somehow obtained documents
\nthat allowed them to book a berth where the vessel could dock and
\ndischarge the metal shipment, Choong said.<\/p>\n
Malaysian authorities have begun preliminary investigations,
\nChoong said.<\/p>\n
Details of the ship's name and its number of crew members were
\nnot immediately available.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's waters are the world's most pirate-afflicted. Last
\nyear, 93 attacks -- more than a quarter of the worldwide total --
\nwere in Indonesia. But that figure did not include another 37
\nattacks in the Straits of Malacca, a key shipping lane between
\nSumatra and peninsular Malaysia.<\/p>",
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