Attack on Malaysian tanker foiled as crewman races off with

Attack on Malaysian tanker foiled as crewman races off with
pirates' boat

Agencies
Kuala Lumpur

An attack by Indonesian pirates on a Malaysian tanker was foiled
on Tuesday when a quick-thinking crewman from the vessel leapt
into the robbers' boat and sped off in it to fetch the police,
officials said.

The tanker, which was carrying diesel from Malaysia's Port
Klang to Myanmar, was boarded before dawn by 10 pirates off the
northern island of Langkawi in the Malacca Strait.

"All the suspects got up on the tanker and they left their
boat beside the tanker ship. Then one of the crew of the tanker
ship just stole the boat," an officer with the Langkawi marine
police base told AFP.

Leaving the pirates stranded on the 4,629-tonne tanker, owned
by Malaysian company Netline, the crew member raced to the marine
police base and raised the alert.

Police arrived at the scene a little after midday and managed
to persuade the suspects, all of whom are Indonesians, to give up
about three hours later.

"The pirates threatened to blow up the boat during
negotiations but the police finally got them to surrender," Noel
Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy
Reporting Center, told AFP.

All 19 crew members on board the tanker were safe, although
the captain is believed to have sustained a light head injury,
said a northern region marine police officer.

Mokhtar Othman, a northern marine police spokesman, was quoted
by AP as saying on Tuesday that officials will investigate
whether the pirates were linked to those who abducted two
Japanese and one Filipino from a Japanese-registered tug boat
near the same location in March. The abductees were later
released unharmed.

Police in Langkawi were interrogating the pirates, Mokhtar
said, adding that it was not immediately clear whether the
attackers' motive was robbery or kidnapping.

The attack was the seventh this year in the strait, a pirate-
infested route bordered by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Officials recorded 37 attacks last year in the waterway.

The Malacca Strait is one of the world's most important
waterways, with 50,000 ships carrying about one-third of the
globe's trade passing through it each year.

However the strait, 960 kilometers long and 1.2 kilometers
wide at its narrowest point, is notoriously vulnerable to pirate
attacks and governments in the region also believe it is tempting
for terrorists.

In an effort to stem pirate attacks, the governments of
Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have launched co-ordinated
patrols and opened the door to technical assistance from the
United States.

Despite this, pirates have continued their efforts, Choong
said.

"There have been a number of attacks despite co-ordinated
patrols by the three countries," he said.

More than 50,000 vessels each year ply the strait, which links
Asia to Europe and the Middle East, carrying half the world's oil
and a third of global commerce.