Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 13, 2003 at 15:01:33 from 195.93.48.8 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Some Gunboat History posted by Sam Finlay on August 12, 2003 at 12:31:51:
From "Lloyd's List" (the world's second oldest continuously published newspaper, and no I did not ask the Editor for permission but since I write for him I doubt if he will mind) for today:
"PIRATES are demanding a $100,000 ransom for the Captain and two crew members of a Malaysian oil tanker hijacked in the Malacca Strait at the weekend.
The Labuan-flagged 740gt oil tanker Penrider was attacked by heavily armed pirates 12nm off Port Klang at 13-30hrs August 10 while in the northbound lane of the traffic seperation scheme heading from Singapore to Penang with 1,000 tonnes cargo of fuel oil.
The International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur said the tanker was attacked by seven or eight pirates in fishing boat who were armed with automatic weapons and a grenade launcher.
The pirates opened fire on the tanker and demanded the Master stopped the ship.
The pirates boarded the ship taking its 10 crew, eight Indonesian nationals and two Burmese hostage , and headed the ship into Indonesian waters.
"The Indonesian captain was subsequently asked to call the owner, who managed to negotiate the release of the ship, but the captain, chief engineer and an oiler were taken hostage by the pirates," Malaysian marine police chief Asst Comm Mohd Sueb Abdullah said.
The pirates escaped in the fishing boat with the three hostages, M$10,000 in cash, and the ships documents.
The pirates later contacted the ship's owner demanding a $100,000 ransom for the release of the hostages.
"It is a kidnapping and ransom case," Noel Choong, regional manager of the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur said.
"The modus operandi is the same as the Aceh hijackings and kidnappings a few years ago."
Rebels for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have kidnapped crew from a number of ships sailing close to the warn province in the North East of the Malacca Strait."