In Asia's waters, the number of reported pirate attacks on ships has jumped threefold in the last five years and presents a major safety threat to vessels and crews. The people who come on board are very well armed with automatic weapons. They have used them. They are quite prepared to kill crew members. There are whole crews that have been murdered in cold blood.
Officials agree that the waters around Indonesia are the most dangerous in Asia.
They were the site of more than one third of the 285 reported attacks last year. Jakarta says it does not have the resources to tackle the problem. Mr. Mukundan, who now directs the International Maritime Bureau for the International Chamber of Commerce, blames a lack of law enforcement to deter criminals. He says Indonesia has only nine patrol boats to cover its sprawling archipelago. At a meeting of maritime safety authorities in Tokyo last week, officials from 15 Asian countries pledged to jointly fight the increasing number of piracy attacks in the region's waters.