Shipping Patterns in the Malacca and Singapore Straits: An Assessment of the Risks to Different Types of Vessel (Report‪)‬

Introduction Some media reports and even academic papers use incorrect or distorted information to support perceptions of threats from piracy and maritime terrorism in the Malacca and Singapore Straits. (1) A notorious example is the case of the chemical tanker Dewi Madrim, which was attacked in the Malacca Straits in March 2003 and subsequently cited in newspapers around the world as an instance of terrorists learning how to drive a ship in the same way as the September 11 terrorists had attended flying school (Liss 2006, p. 120, and Teo 2007, p. 547). It has also been described in a paper in a respected journal as an example of "cases of terrorist pirates hijacking tankers in order to practice steering them through straits and crowded sealanes" (Luft and Korin 2004, p. 67). Despite these perceptions, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) stated that its Piracy Reporting Centre (IMBPRC) in Kuala Lumpur had received confirmation from the owners of the ship that the attack was not as originally described in a report by Aegis Defence Services, a London-based security company (Richardson 2004, pp. 32-33). However, little mention is made of the size of the vessel. The Dewi Madrim was in fact very small, only 737 gross registered tons (Teo 2007, p. 547), and no great skill would have been required to drive her.