International Maritime Bureau warns for pirates in Singapore Strait

17-05-99 The International Maritime Bureau has issued a global warning about pirate attacks on ships passing through the Singapore Strait.
Pirates attacked 10 ships in the strait in the first three months of this year, according to the London-based maritime bureau.
The watchdog body said a total of 66 piracy incidents were reported world-wide in the first quarter of 1999, with 38 of them occurring in Southeast Asia, the paper reported.
Indonesia's waters were the most dangerous in the region, with 18 piracy attacks. Singapore was second with 10, followed by Thailand with three.
Malaysia, China and South China Sea waters each had two reported attacks, and Vietnam had one.
The pirates _ sometimes armed with only machetes and knives _ usually rob ships' crews of cash and valuables. But more sophisticated swashbucklers steal cargoes or hijack entire vessels, the report said.

The number of violent sea attacks world-wide in the first three months of this year came to 60, down from 138 in the same period last year, according to the report.
There were no deaths in the first quarter of this year, compared to 24 in the same quarter of 1998.
Officials were unnerved by a recent attack on a ship carrying cement in Indonesian waters. The ship's steering bridge was left unmanned during the attack, creating the danger of a collision.
"The ship was left steaming at full speed on auto-pilot for 30 to 40 minutes, without a navigating officer. Luckily, nothing happened," Noel Choong, the International Maritime Bureau's regional manager for Southeast Asia, said.
The event, along with an attempted attack on a fully-loaded oil tanker on Jan. 16, has sparked fears of accidents leading to oil spills that could devastate the environment and disrupt sea trade.