S'pore's shipping lanes highlight maritime terrorist threat
S'pore's shipping lanes highlight maritime terrorist threat
Karl Malakunas, Agence France-Presse, Singapore
The silhouettes of hunched over figures on two wooden fishing boats are barely visible as a Singapore navy patrol sails past less than 200 meters away off the island-nation's southern coast.
"Now, can you tell if they are fishermen or terrorists posing as fishermen," an RSS Independence crew member asks rhetorically as he stands on the deck of the patrol vessel in the harsh morning sun and shakes his head.
"It's really hard, even for the trained eye."
During more than six hours of sailing through the Singapore Strait and into Indonesia's waters, the close encounter with the fishing boats is just one of many incidents highlighting Asia's vulnerability to maritime terrorism.
Hundreds of commercial and private vessels -- from oil tankers to cruise ships, freight tankers and tiny fishing boats -- jostle with each other for sailing and anchorage space in the crowded Singapore Strait each day.
The strait is just one nautical mile wide at some points, forcing vessels to sometimes sail within 50 metres of each other. The appearance of the tiny fishing boats dodging the super- freighters adds to the impression of chaos.
Singapore authorities are acutely aware of the terrorist threat and have some of the best maritime security safeguards in Asia, Andrew Tan, an assistant professor at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, told AFP.
As part of a three-pronged security operation with the police coast guard and the maritime port authority, the Singapore navy's 11 patrol boats rotate 24 hours a day through Singapore's waters.
The navy also guards oil tankers and other vessels regarded as being likely terrorist targets as they sail through Singapore's waters into and out of what is one of the world's three biggest ports, alongside Hong Kong and Rotterdam.
In addition, those ships are only allowed to anchor in protected areas.
But despite the security measures, there is a deep sense among those involved in maritime security that the safety net can be easily penetrated.
"If someone wanted to ram a boat with explosives, and they had enough horse power on something like a fishing boat, it would be almost impossible to stop them," another RSS Independence crew member told AFP.
"What we are doing is largely symbolic."
Aside from the Singapore waterway, regional and U.S. authorities are focusing much more sharply on the adjoining 800- kilometer Malacca Strait that runs between Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Malacca Strait is one of the world's most important sea passages, with more than 50,000 ships using it to travel from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea each year.
Singapore Defense Minister Teo Chee Hean warned last week when he opened an 18-nation navy exercise here that there needed to be far more multilateral coordination to protect the region's waters, especially the Malacca Strait.
"What is in place today is not adequate, as it is an intensive and complex task to safeguard regional waters against maritime terrorism," Teo said
"If the Malacca Straits should be closed because of a terrorist attack, the effect would be devastating.
"The impact would be felt far and wide, not just in the region and Asia, but elsewhere in the world where countries are plugged into the global trading system."
The Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies' Tan described the feeling among regional security officials to the maritime security threat as a "state of near-paranoia".
Tan said three recent specific issues had heightened concerns that terrorists were planning to hijack a commercial ship somewhere in the region.
The first was the brief hijacking of an Indonesian-registered chemical tanker in Indonesian waters last year.
Tan said the assailants kidnapped the captain and first officer, who are still missing, and practiced maneuvering the vessel for an hour before leaving.
The second has been the theft of at least 10 tugboats in Indonesian waters over the past two years.
The third was the attempt by a group of men to learn underwater diving techniques at a Malaysian diving school last year.
"But they did not want to learn how to decompress," Tan said, echoing the tactics of the terrorists behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States who wanted to learn how to fly but not land.