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Murder
of four sailors marks violent start to shipping year 2004
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| IMB
Director, Captain Pottengal Mukundan. "It is vital that action
is taken by Indonesian authorities to ensure that vessels off the
northern coast of Sumatra can navigate in safety |
Aceh,
13 February 2004
- Four crew members of an oil tanker were shot dead by pirates in the
Malacca Strait off Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province last week after
the ship's owner failed to pay a ransom for their release.
The incident marks
what ICC's International Maritime Bureau (IMB) calls a "disturbing
new trend in pirate activity with attackers appearing more inclined to
take the lives of sailors".
According to one of
the surviving crewmembers, the 640 GRT oil product tanker CHERRY 201 was
seized by heavily armed pirates on January 5 while sailing off Aceh en-route
to Belawan port with a cargo of 1,000 tonnes of palm oil.
The gunman - suspected of being rebels belonging to the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) - took 13 crew hostage and released the vessel's master so that
he could convey the hijacker's ransom demands of 400 million Rupiah (about
US$50,000) to the vessel's owners.
The owners negotiated the ransom down to 100 million Rupiah and then down
again to 70 million Rupiah, promising to send the ransom immediately.
After the ransom was not delivered more than a month later, the pirates
shot dead four of the Indonesian crewmembers while the remaining nine
jumped overboard to escape. The Indonesian authorities are investigating.
"This has increased the stakes in these kinds of attacks to a dangerous
level," said IMB Director, Captain Pottengal Mukundan. "It is
vital that action is taken by Indonesian authorities to ensure that vessels
off the northern coast of Sumatra can navigate in safety. We hope that
the perpetrators of this act will caught and punished appropriately under
Indonesian law".
In another attempted
hijacking last week, ten pirates in a wooden fishing boat armed with machine
guns opened fire on a tugboat towing a barge in the northern Malacca Straits.
The IMB reports that
brave efforts by the tug's crew to fight off the pirates with hand flares
foiled the hijacking attempt. While the tug sustained extensive damage
to its bridge, there were no injuries to crew and the pirates aborted
the boarding and headed towards the Aceh coast.
The threat to shipping
posed by armed pirates militia off the coast of Aceh in Northern Sumatra
has been highlighted by the IMB's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting
Centre for many years.
The daily messages
sent by the Centre to ships warn mariners to avoid passing or anchoring
along the Indonesian coast of the Malacca Straits. The warning highlights
that the Coast near Aceh is particularly risky for hijackings.
In another incident
on 2 February, further highlighting the new, more violent nature of piratical
attacks, twelve pirates approached trawlers fishing near Pulau Jerajak
in the Malacca Straits under pretext of buying fish.
The IMB reports five
armed men with M16 rifles boarded three of the fishing trawlers. They
took the skippers and nine fishermen hostage and forced one of the skippers
to contact the boat's owner and ask for a ransom of RM500,000 (about US$132,000).
The pirates stole
the boat's equipment, documents and catch of fish. They then took the
hostages to Aceh and beat them up. The crew were released three days later
after owners reportedly paid a ransom of RM180,000.
And in Bangladesh
last week, near the port of Chittagong, a gang of armed pirates boarded
a Mongolian flag ship and shot two watchmen.
The IMB says the pirates
stole some of the ship's property and escaped. The two injured watchmen
were rescued by a tugboat and sent to hospital but later died of their
injuries. Local police are investigating the case.
For further information
or interviews please contact IMB
Director, Captain Pottegal Mukundan +44 208 591 3000.
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