SE Asian nations told to unite against sea piracy

SE Asian nations told to unite against sea piracy

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Southeast Asian countries need to join forces to combat the piracy that makes the region's sea lanes the most dangerous in the world, a conference heard on Wednesday.

Pirate booty these days include cargoes of oil worth millions of dollars rather than the treasure chests of earlier centuries, but today's buccaneers can still be cut-throat murderers.

Incidents of piracy have increase 50 percent worldwide in the past year, and around half the attacks and hijackings occur in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago state, was singled out as the country with the biggest problem at the meeting of 20 nations in Kuala Lumpur.

There were over 100 acts of piracy in Indonesian waters alone last year.

"We are very concerned about Indonesia, extremely concerned," P.K. Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, said.

In the past week, three ships were attacked in the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia, Malaysian Marine Police Commander Muhamad Muda told reporters.

On Monday, a tanker loaded with palm oil was boarded at anchor in Indonesian waters. The captain was seized and is being held for ransom.

Another tanker heading to Singapore was hit last Wednesday when pirates took cash and jewelry then fled.

Mukundan expected the dramatic rise in piracy to render the region's sea lanes "extremely unsafe" unless governments took serious action.

On Tuesday a Japanese delegate criticized the lack of cross- border co-operation.

Eighty percent of Japan's oil passes through the Strait of Malacca, shared by Indonesia and Malaysia.

Mukundan said piracy has become big business. "Multi-million dollar cargoes are being hijacked in one country, the ship moves on ... changes its name and its flag and tries to sell the cargo."

Piracy is also becoming more bloodthirsty, with 72 sailors murdered worldwide last year versus three in 1999, according to Malaysia.

"In 1998 I said I didn't think pirates were violent ... but now I think that's changed. It's all planned now. Premeditated murder is not out of the question," said Reverend Peter Ellis from Hong Kong's Mission-Seafarers.

"I've known two people who gave up the sea because of their ships being attacked," added Ellis, who counsels seamen fearful of having to pass through the same pirate-infested waters.

Malaysia says it has drastically cut attacks on its side of the Strait and on Tuesday its marine forces put on a high-powered sea and air demonstration of how it deals with pirates and other maritime threats.

Commander Muhamad characterized most pirates as petty thieves, operating in gangs of four or five aboard a single speedboat.

"They use weapons in the forms of long knives. So far there is no evidence that they are using firearms," said Muhamad.

He said Malaysia had been successful at chasing them out of its waters.

Muhammad said pirates were holding Simon Perera, captain of the Indonesian-owned MT Tirta Niaga, captive in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island in Indonesia, at the top of the pirate-infested Malacca Straits.

The pirates were demanding about 1 billion Indonesian rupiah (about US$100,000) from the ship's owner for Perera's release. Indonesian and Malaysian authorities were working to secure his freedom.

The pirates boarded the vessel on Monday as it was anchored in the Malacca Strait - which separates Malaysia from Sumatra - shortly after the tanker left a port in northern Malaysia for India.

The pirates released 20 crew members and the vessel, which was carrying 2,850 metric tons of palm oil products, without explanation early Wednesday, Muhammad said. Malaysian officials were questioning the crew.