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.