It is all the more fearsome because almost invariably its victims are defenceless and far from the protection of the law. There is evidence that organised crime is behind some of the bands of marauders that prey on shipping in the coastal waters of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries. More than two thirds of the attacks reported to the International Maritime Bureau, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce, are in Asian waters. Reported incidents have tripled since the early 1990s. Most were little more than muggings at sea, with robbery the motive.
Hijackings are comparatively rare.
They require a degree of organisation that only the international crime syndicates can muster. But at all levels, extreme violence or the threat of it is frequent. Only last month, the Japanese-owned Global Mars was boarded by an armed gang in the mouth of the Malacca Straits, one of the world's most congested sea ways plied by 30,000 vessels every year. With typical callousness, the pirates tied up and blindfolded the crew and kept them prisoners for 11 days before finally setting them adrift in an open boat with only a little food and water. The Panamanian-registered ship and its cargo of palm oil has disappeared, so far without trace.