Growing sea piracy in region could cripple world trade, Singapore says
Growing sea piracy in region could cripple world trade, Singapore says
Jason Szep, Reuters, Singapore
Attacks on ships by sea pirates in Southeast Asia are
resembling military operations -- growing bolder, more violent
and fueling fears of an attack that would cripple world trade,
Singapore said on Sunday.
As the United States considers plans for a Regional Maritime
Security Initiative to tighten surveillance of Southeast Asia's
busy Malacca Strait, through which a third of world trade passes,
Singapore said the risk of a devastating attack was growing.
"We have been alarmed not only by the increase in the number
of pirate attacks in the sea lanes of communication in this part
of the world, but also in the nature of the piracy attacks," said
Singapore's Coordinating Minister for Security, Tony Tan.
"In previous years when you had a piracy attack, what it meant
is that you have a sampan or a boat coming up to a cargo ship,
pirates throwing up some ropes, scrambling on board, ransacking
the ship for valuables, stealing money and then running away," he
told an Asian security forum.
"But the last piracy attack that took place in the Straits of
Malacca showed a different pattern," he added.
The pirates were well-armed, operating sophisticated weapons
and commanding high-speed boats. "They conducted the operation
almost with like military precision," Tan said.
"Instead of just ransacking the ship for valuables, they took
command of the ship, and steered the ship for about an hour, and
then eventually left with the captain in their captivity," he
said.
"To all of us, this is reminiscent of the pattern by which
terrorists mount an attack."
The International Maritime Bureau says one-third of the 445
cases of recorded pirate attacks last year happened in Indonesian
waters, including the Malacca Strait linking trading and oil
centers in the Middle East, Asia and Europe.
More than 50,000 commercial vessels travel the 805-km (500-
mile) channel between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the
Malaysian peninsula to Singapore each year.
Singapore has repeatedly warned of the potential link between
pirates and religious militant networks such as Jemaah Islamiah,
blamed for the deadly 2002 bomb blasts in the Indonesian island
of Bali and widely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
"We are concerned that terrorists may seize control of a
tanker with a cargo of lethal materials, LNG (liquefied natural
gas) perhaps, chemicals, and use it as a floating bomb against
our port," Tan said.
"This would cause catastrophic damage, not only to the port
but also for people, because our port is located very near to a
highly dense residential area. Thousands of people would be
killed," he said.
The waters of Southeast Asia, especially around the vast
Indonesian archipelago, are among the world's most treacherous.
Malaysia rejected on Sunday the use of foreign forces to
patrol the area as Washington begins to draw up a formal plan
known as the Regional Maritime Security Initiative for closer
maritime security. But Malaysia acknowledged the threat.
"The threat that was articulated by Tony Tan of the case of a
more sophisticated form of terrorism would entail us to increase
our capacity to deal with that particular form of a new threat,
which we have not envisaged in the past," Malaysian Defense
Minister Najib Razak told reporters.
"We are open to discussing this matter," he said.
"If terrorists were to seize a tanker, a large ship, and sink
it into a narrow part of the Straits it will cripple world trade.
It would have the iconic large impact which terrorists seek," Tan
said.