10 Indonesians arrested in HK for ship piracy

JAKARTA (JP): Chinese coastal security authorities confirmed on Wednesday that they had arrested 10 suspected Indonesian pirates who allegedly took over a Thai tanker last June, Antara reported.

The men were arrested while sailing the stolen Thai tanker into Chinese territorial waters off southeastern coastal Guangdong province in June.

The Siam Xanxai tanker had been carrying 2,000 tons of diesel fuel from Singapore to Thailand, Antara said.

The men allegedly blocked the tanker with two motorized vessels while it was at sea between Singapore and Malaysia. They then forced the 15 member Thai crew onboard the ship into one of the smaller vessels, while holding another crew member hostage. All the crew members were rescued.

In August, Chinese authorities arrested a Chinese man who with his Indonesian partners had allegedly massacred 23 seamen on a Panamanian cargo ship in the South China Sea last year.

In February, China came under attack during a conference in Singapore organized by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) for failing to take stern measures to clamp down on ship hijackings.

The maritime bureau accused China of not respond directly to an IMB paper which criticized it for failing to prosecute pirates it caught red-handed in an incident involving a Malaysian- registered tanker last year.

Some Chinese navy personnel have also been accused of involvement in piracy, but Beijing has flatly rejected the claims.(imn)