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High-Tech Pirates Ravage Asian Seas



By Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, July 5, 1999; Page A18

TOKYO-Pirates with automatic weapons and cell phones have brought a
terrifying sophistication to old-fashioned buccaneering in the shipping
lanes of Asia, in some cases even killing entire ships' crews.

"We thought pirates belonged to history, but they are back and meaner than
ever," said Yoshihiko Yamada, of the Nippon Foundation, a private Japanese
group that tracks piracy and that next week will host a conference for ship
owners to discuss ways to combat it.

The case of the Japanese freighter Tenyu illustrates the new high-tech,
high-finance face of piracy. The 277-foot vessel steamed out of Indonesia
last September loaded with $3 million worth of aluminum ingots bound for
South Korea. The ship's owners lost radio contact with it the next day.

Three months later, the Tenyu turned up at a seedy Chinese port with a new
name freshly painted on its bow -- its fourth name since it disappeared, it
turned out -- a new Indonesian crew and a cargo of palm oil. The 14 original
crew members are presumed dead, and investigators say the aluminum ingots
were unloaded and sold in Burma, ultimately bound for Chinese buyers.

East Asia has always had piracy, but the number of cases has increased
dramatically in recent years, especially since the region's economy went
into a tailspin two years ago. Historically, Yamada said, economic or
political instability in the Far East has led to violence and thuggery at
sea. Last year, 59 cases of piracy -- almost a third of the 192 reported
worldwide -- occurred off the coast of Indonesia, the country hit hardest by
the Asian economic crisis.

Estimates of financial losses due to acts of piracy around the world have
reached as high as $16 billion a year, with the vast majority occurring in
Asia, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau, which
maintains a Piracy Reporting Center in Malaysia. In a recent report, the
bureau cautioned against "romanticized" views of pirates as Robin Hood
figures and "bearded renegades sailing seas of endless blue." The truth, it
said, "is that modern day piracy . . . is a violent, bloody, ruthless
practice and is made the more fearsome by the knowledge on the part of the

victims that they are alone and defenseless."

Officials who track international piracy say the rate of violence
accompanying ship takeovers is increasing at an alarming rate. Pirates
killed at least 67 seamen last year -- all but one of them in Asia -- and
nearly 40 more are unaccounted for. Yamada estimated that on average
worldwide, pirates attack a ship a day and kill a seaman a week.

The number of wholesale killings of crews is increasing as well. In addition
to the Tenyu case, all 23 crewmen of the Hong Kong freighter Cheung Son were
reportedly lined up on deck and gunned down by pirates who hijacked the ship
off China in December. Six bodies -- weighted, bound and gagged -- showed up
in fishermen's nets. The 450-foot ship, loaded with iron ore, is still
missing. Another 39 crewmen are missing from two other cargo ships that
disappeared without a trace off Hong Kong in December.

Investigators are confounded by modern pirate syndicates that resemble
international business conglomerates, with branches and employees across the
region. Maritime experts say the Tenyu case involved South Korean planners,
Indonesian thugs, Burmese dock-hands and black marketeers, and at least some
confederates in China -- all part of a network that authorities still have
not fully uncovered.

Modern pirates still use centuries-old techniques. They usually sneak up on
a vessel at night, throw a hook over the stern and climb aboard. But these
days, they are aided in their crimes by high-powered businessmen who invest
heavily in the latest technology. One pirate ship captured recently in
Indonesia was outfitted with bogus immigration stamps, tools to forge ship
documents and sophisticated radar, communications and satellite-tracking
equipment.

In some cases, the pirates operate like an attacking fleet. In March, the
5,600-ton freighter Marine Master, loaded with soda ash -- used in the
production of glass, soap and paper -- was attacked off Thailand by 20
pirates in three boats. All the pirates were armed with automatic rifles or
pistols, and some wore military uniforms and ski masks. They shot and
wounded one crew member, then set all 16 crewmen adrift in flimsy plastic
life rafts. They were rescued by fishermen six days later, but the ship and
its cargo are still missing.

Authorities say they see little prospect that piracy can be stopped
altogether. The high seas have always been a thief's dream, especially in
places like the Strait of Malacca, the narrow seaway separating Indonesia
from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The Tenyu was hijacked in that tight
passage, the maritime version of a dark alley, where ships must slow down to
navigate safely -- offering a perfect opening to pirates.

Law enforcement agencies in different countries are often stymied by crimes
that occur in waters claimed by several countries, or in international
waters. And many ship owners do not bother to report instances of piracy,
knowing that every day their vessel is idled for an investigation costs them
tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue, compounding their original
loss.


Many authorities in Asia say that some countries, particularly China, appear
to allow piracy to flourish. They note that in several cases, pirates have
sailed stolen ships to China, unloaded and sold the cargo and then walked
away without interruption by authorities. Officials in Beijing have denied
such allegations, but suspicions persist that corrupt local officials,
especially former military officials, view piracy as a lucrative side
business.

Organizations such as the Nippon Foundation say the best way to fight piracy
is prevention -- through better organization among ship owners. They are
advising that ships be outfitted with high-tech alarms, motion detectors,
laser sensors and water cannons. They are also urging ship owners to install
hidden transmitters to help locate hijacked ships.

"The best prevention is an old one," Yamada said. "Keep a good lookout."


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