RI, S'pore reaffirm pledge to protect Malacca Straits
RI, S'pore reaffirm pledge to protect Malacca Straits
Agencies, Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur
Indonesia and Singapore on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to protect the Straits of Malacca which remains a dangerous waterway despite joint naval patrols.
Last year, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia launched joint patrols to curb piracy and deter maritime terrorism in the 900- kilometer (550-mile) waterway. Despite the heightened security, dozens of pirate attacks were reported in the Malacca Straits.
Meeting in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the military chiefs of the two countries agreed to step up military cooperation and increase personnel exchanges in an effort to improve the safety of the waterway that borders Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
"We have come to the conclusion that the Malacca Straits have to be secure from pirates," Indonesian military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto told reporters. "Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia can work together effectively in order to prevent such attacks."
Just last week, pirates hijacked a tin-laden Indonesian ship traveling to Singapore and held the crew captive for two days while unloading the cargo in a Malaysian port, a maritime watchdog said on Tuesday.
The pirates, believed to be Indonesians, fired gunshots at the ship and boarded it on Friday shortly after it had left Muntok port on the southern tip of Sumatra island, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.
The pirates eventually took the ship back into Indonesian waters and escaped in a speedboat, leaving the crew uninjured, Choong said.
Meanwhile, a top Malaysian security official warned on Wednesday that any ship providing private armed escort services to merchant vessels in the pirate-infested Malacca Strait will be detained.
Director of internal security Othman Talib was responding to reports earlier this month that private security firms employing former members of elite military units had begun providing armed escorts to ships plying dangerous Asian waters.
One of the groups, Singapore-based Background Asia Risk Solutions, has its own armor-plated vessel that accompanies boats anywhere between Sri Lanka and the South China Sea for about US$50,000 a mission.
The company employs 60 former members of crack military units from Singapore and elsewhere, who carry out their escort missions armed with M-16 and M-4 assault rifles.
Background Asia Risk Solutions managing director Alex Duperouzel said on Wednesday his company was indeed conducting armed escorts in Malaysian waters but said he was confident the operations were legal.
Another Singapore-based company that provides armed escorts is Malacca Straits Maritime Security, whose personnel include armed Gurkhas, according to a report in the Straits Times last month.
Malaysia has formed a new maritime agency that will begin patrolling the Malacca Straits in June to curb rising piracy and the threat of terrorism, a news report said on Wednesday.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, or MMEA, will start monitoring the straits and other territorial waters with six patrol boats and crew drawn from the Malaysian navy, the New Straits Times quoted navy chief, Adm. Mohamad Anwar Mohamad Nor, as saying.
At least eight pirate attacks on ships in the Malacca Strait and adjoining Singapore Strait have been recorded by the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center in Malaysia since Feb. 28.
The strait, a narrow waterway slicing Indonesia's Sumatra island from mainland Southeast Asia is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, funneling 50,000 vessels a year between the biggest economies of the West and the East.