SE Asia eyes anti-terror effort in Malacca Strait
SE Asia eyes anti-terror effort in Malacca Strait
Grace Nirang, Reuters, Jakarta
Imagine a huge gas tanker hijacked in the busy Malacca Strait and turned into a floating bomb aimed at wealthy Singapore or major ports in Indonesia or Malaysia.
The blast would cause massive damage and yet the chances of such an attack could be limited if there was closer cooperation between the three Southeast Asian nations, regional ministers gathered in the Indonesian capital Jakarta said on Thursday.
Experts have warned the Malacca Strait, one of the world's busiest sea lanes, could make an ideal target for militants to hijack tankers filled with hundreds of thousands of tons of gas or oil.
"The issue of fighting piracy in the Malacca Strait has to take on a new importance given the much greater threat it could now pose. We need a closer security cooperation with Malaysia and Singapore," Indonesian Communications Minister Agum Gumelar told Reuters at the sidelines of the TransASEAN 2002 conference.
Gas carriers make ideal targets due to the highly flammable nature of their cargo, experts say. A hijacked tanker could be rammed into offshore oil terminals causing huge damage.
Southeast Asia is particularly at risk from sea-borne militant attacks given the narrowness of its waterways, while the long- running scourge of piracy in the Malacca Strait illustrates just how easy it is to hijack a vessel, experts warn.
"But such efforts (to secure the strait) are very costly...so the three countries will try to get international support...on how to share the cost," Singapore Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong told Reuters.
He said the island country has stepped up security at maritime installations and waters surrounding offshore oil and chemical terminals following threats on its Changi airport earlier this year.
Malaysian Minister of Transport Ling Liong Sik said it was increasingly important for Southeast Asian countries to cooperate in ensuring the security of their cargoes in the free trade era.
"Container tracking and safe delivery of our cargo is very important especially to the United States," Ling said.
Terrorists are likely to be much more organized and better armed than pirates and, even more alarmingly, could already be present on the ship as bona fide crew, he said.
Apart from the obvious devastation such an attack would cause, the economic impact could be enormous, blocking a sea lane that carries 25 percent of the world's crude oil trade, or 10.3 m barrels a day, Ling said.
Others said if militants can train to be aircraft pilots they can learn to control a large ship as well.
"And one of the problems...despite huge advances in tracking and communications equipment, owners and operators often do not know where their ships really are and therefore take considerable time to realize that they are missing," said Barens Saragih, the head of the Indonesian National Shipowners Association.