Tsunami may have wiped out vicious Malacca Strait pirates
Tsunami may have wiped out vicious Malacca Strait pirates
Paul Dillon, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Banda Aceh, Aceh
The tsunami that erased dozens of coastal communities in Aceh,
Indonesia, killing nearly 175,000 people in the country, may have
taken a toll on another group that has dogged security officials
in the region for years.
The gigantic wave could also have wiped out a vicious band of
pirates who prey on ships traveling through the Malacca Strait,
according to a Malaysian agency that tracks attacks on global
shipping.
"Since December 26 tsunami we have not recorded a single
attack on shipping in the Malacca Strait," says Noel Choong, of
the International Maritime Board (IMB) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"One reason may be that the physical assets they (pirates)
use, the boats and the weapons, were destroyed in the tsunami and
of course the other possibility is that they themselves may have
died. It's a big question-mark and we're watching the situation
closely."
More than 100,000 ships annually travel the narrow, 1,000-
kilometer-long waterway which separates the Malaysian peninsula
and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, carrying roughly half of
the world's oil supplies and a third of its cargo. Aceh is
located at the northern tip of Sumatra.
Based on intelligence gathered by the United States, Singapore
last year warned that the lack of security in the Strait made it
a ripe target for al-Qaeda. Security officials suggested
terrorists might crash a hijacked tanker into Singapore's port,
shutting one of the busiest container terminals on earth.
They pointed to a specific incident in late 2003 during which
a large vessel was boarded and piloted for several hours by a
group of men who stole nothing from the crew and disappeared into
the night, as a possible training-run for a future attack.
"They've certainly been talking it (terrorist strike) up a
lot, holding all sorts of conferences and inviting experts to
come from around the world to talk about it," says Dr. Andrew Tan
of the Singapore-based Institute for Defense and Strategic
Studies.
So serious has the problem become that a senior U.S. naval
officer disclosed the outline of plans for the deployment of U.S.
marines and special forces troops in the region during a budget
oversight meeting in Washington D.C. in April.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore responded by forming highly-
publicized joint patrols in the Malacca Straits, sharing radio
frequencies and approving the pursuit of pirates in their
neighbor's territorial waters.
But the patrols had no effect on piracy, Choong said.
"Before the tsunami, the number of attacks was increasing
noticeably, despite the presence of the naval patrols, which was
troubling to us," said Choong. "They moved up and down the coast
to the most northern tip of Sumatra, they were heading further
and further out to sea and even into Malaysian waters. These were
very serious attacks, involving multiple boats being shot at,
shots into the bridge, lots of bullet holes in the windows and
crew members being injured and killed."
The IMB, a branch of the International Chamber of Commerce,
reported 121 of the 445 attacks on commercial shipping in 2003
occurred in Indonesian waters, a 20 per cent increase over the
previous year. Twenty-one seamen died, more than 350 were taken
hostage and 70 remain missing.
Roughly 70 cases of piracy were reported in the Strait during
the first nine months of 2004. The end of the year saw a sharp
rise in cases but the IMB will not release year-end figures for
at least two more weeks.
Indonesian authorities blamed the rebel Free Aceh Movement
(GAM), with whom peace talks will begin this week in Helsinki,
for the incidents of piracy. Choong says that while it might once
have been the case, evidence collected from crew members
kidnapped for ransom indicated a criminal syndicate has been
primarily responsible.
"In the beginning, about five years ago, it was GAM, but in
2003 there were signs that it wasn't GAM doing it but organized
criminal gangs," he said.