Everything
appeared peaceful and normal at midnight, aboard Naninwa Maru-1, a
Japanese tanker ship as it cruised along the Malaysian coast on the
night of 16th
April 2014, carrying Diesel oil to Myanmar from Singapore. Most of
the crew members, who were of Indonesian, Thai, Myanmar and Indian
nationalities, were fast asleep except for the ones, who were on
duty. Around 1 AM one of the crew members could not believe his own
eyes as he saw about five or six men armed men with a pistol and a
(machete) suddenly appear aboard the ship. Before the surprised crew
could offer any resistance, pirates subdued and tied up the crew,
robbed the vessel and took control.
The
pirates then must have signaled their accomplices because suddenly
from no where, two tanker ships appeared on the horizon. The pirates
briskly started pumping the Diesel from the tanks on Naninwa Maru-1
to these two tankers. The pirates after pumping out more than half of
the 5 million liters of diesel, made off. Several hours later after
the attackers had fled, the crew discovered three shipmates were also
missing, presumably taken as hostage. Malaysian domestic media
report that the abducted men were Indonesians. The possibility of
these men being accomplices of the pirates can not be denied. Only
further investigation would bring out the truth. The ship is now berthed off Port Klang, Malaysia’s main port, for investigations.
The
incident took place when Naninwa Maru-1 was just 16 Nautical miles
away from the Malaysian coastline. No great imagination is required
to guess that the tanker was in the waters of the Malacca Straits. A
place that has a long history of pirates hijacking ships passing
through the channel. Malacca is located some two hundred kilometers
north of Singapore. The city is the capital of State of Malacca
within federal Malaysia. What makes Malacca so special is the narrow
patch of sea along its shoreline. This funnel shaped narrow strip of
Sea, called straits of Malacca, is sandwiched between Malaysian coast
line on the eastern side and Indonesian island of Sumatra on the
western side. In fact, at the narrowest part, which happens to be
located near the city of Malacca, the straits are just a few
kilometers wide. What makes the Malacca straits important as well as
most crucial for the world’s shipping is the fact that this is the
shortest practical opening for any sea faring ship sailing from South
China Sea to the Indian Ocean or vice versa. (The other sea lane is
through Sunda strait, between islands of Java and Sumatra in
Indonesia. This route is much longer compared to Malacca straits sea
lane.)
About
50000 ships cross this narrow strip of Sea every year. I read
somewhere, that each and every day 15 million barrels of crude oil is
transported through the straits. 70% of the oil that China consumes
every year passes through here. If due to some reasons, the straits
are closed to shipping, half of world’s shipping fleet would be
forced to divert their sea faring routes. Straits of Malacca actually
connect the Andaman Sea on the west to the South China Sea near
Singapore. It is a true bottle-Neck of the world.
The US
Energy Information Administration identifies the Malacca Strait,
which connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea and Pacific
Ocean, as one of the world’s two “most strategic choke points”
for oil trade along with the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. It
is the shortest sea route between the Middle East and Asia with about
15.2 million barrels of oil a day transported along the waterway in
2011, according to the EIA. About 90 percent of that was crude.
Speaking
historically, Malacca straits was always considered as one of the
most dangerous places on Sea, as with such heavy cargo traffic, sea
pirates found it extremely lucrative for their criminal activities.
Even in recent history, there have been case of piracy in Malacca
straits. In the year 1999, a 9000 ton freighter named as MV Alondra
Rainbow had disappeared from here, when on way to Japan with a cargo
of Aluminum ingots. This ship with a crew of 17 was abducted by some
15 armed gangsters. After a week, the crew was found floating
helplessly in a rubber life boat near Thailand coast with no trace of
their ship. After a month, Indian Navy and the Coast guard,
discovered a ship of similar description near the Indian coast. The
ship was chased and fired upon by the Indian Coast guard, when the
pirates surrendered. It was found on inspection, that half of the
ship’s cargo was gone, the name of the ship was changed, it was
showing a different flag and the pirates were trying to flood the
ship to sink it. In the year 2002 alone, 36 ships were attacked here.
In 2003, 60 ships were attacked. When the situation reached such
alarming proportions, the insurance companies started declaring the
Malacca straits area as war zone and refused to insure the ships or
the cargo. US government indicated that unless littoral states take
effective action, US navy would have to patrol this area. After this,
Governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore realized
the gravity of the situation and started joint patrolling. There was
a realization soon that the naval resources of these countries were
not adequate for the task This lead to an agreement between as many
as 16 nations including India, from the surrounding areas, to provide
protection to shipping in the straits.. This agreement is known as
‘Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed
Robbery against Ships in Asia’. After this agreement, the piracy in
the straits has reduced almost to nil. Indian Navy participates in
this security environment as per this agreement and Indian Naval
ships are seen patrolling frequently in the Straits of Malacca.
The
situation in Malacca straits then improved dramatically. Perhaps
because of the measures taken by various Governments, only one
fishing vessel was the only ship that was hijacked in the Strait of
Malacca in all of 2012 according to the statistics available on
International Maritime Bureau web site. Unfortunately, pirating seems
to be picking up again in the Malacca straits and nearby areas, this
year. On 10th October 2013, an oil-products tanker was hijacked off
Malaysia’s Pulau Aur in the South China Sea on Oct. 10, about 67
miles northeast of Singapore. Pirates stole the ship’s cargo before
abandoning it on Oct. 15, the IMB’s website shows. This vessel is
believed to be Danai 4, carrying marine gasoil from Singapore to
Vietnam.
Within
just a month from this act of piracy, the pirates struck again on 7th
November 2013, five pirates armed with guns and knives boarded 3,254
deadweight tonne (dwt) GPT-21 tanker operated by Singapore firm
Global Unique Petroleum about 7.3 nautical miles (13.5 kilometers)
west of Malaysia’s Pulau Kukup in the Strait of Malacca, about 34
miles west of Singapore. The armed hijackers tied up all the crew
members and held them hostage in one cabin. Later they ordered the
Master to steer the ship to a pre-designated position where another
unknown orange hull tanker came alongside. The C/O and the bosun were
forced to operate the mooring winches and then the cargo pumps and
valves to transfer oil into the unknown tanker. The pirates, prior to
leaving the hijacked tanker, also stole personal belongings of the
crew. The gasoil cargo on ship could be worth more than $2.7 million
according to some Singapore sources.
Singapore
headquarters of the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating
Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) says that as
things stand, attacks by gangs armed with guns and knives on shipping
in the Malacca Strait have ranged from 12 to 20 incidents a year over
the last three years. According to Regional security officials, armed
gangs prowling the Malacca Strait may be part of a syndicate that can
either have links to the crew on board the hijacking target or inside
knowledge about the ship and cargo. Such hijacks lead to seizing
tankers so that gasoil cargoes can be transferred and sold on the
black market.
Malacca
straits waters remain a hotbed for pirate attacks and petty theft and
unless strong measures are taken by the regional Governments, such
incidences shall continue to take place.
24th
April 2014
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