Malaysia coast guard to help patrol Malacca Strait

PORT KLANG, Malaysia, Mar 21 (Reuters) Malaysia formally launched its coast guard today with a review of ships and troops by Defence Minister Najib Razak, who said the force symbolised the country's determination to protect its waters.

The biggest maritime threat to the Southeast Asian nation is piracy on its side of the Malacca Strait, which links Asia with the West Asia and Europe and carries some 40 per cent of the world's trade, including 80 per cent of the energy supplies of Japan and China.

But Najib said piracy attacks in the strait had been falling, and none had been reported in Malaysian waters so far this year.

''Our statistics indicate that the number of incidents on our side of the strait have dropped very dramatically,'' he said, noting that only one case had been reported in the second half of 2005, against 18 cases in the same 2004 period.

In all, there were 12 attacks in the 805-km long strait last year, compared to 38 in 2004.

The Malaysian coast guard, which began operations last November, will have a strength of 4,500, drawn from the navy, police, customs and other agencies, and a fleet of 72 vessels, mainly fast patrol boats, Najib told a gathering of coast guard officials from Australia, the United States and 16 Asian nations.

''The formation of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency demonstrates our seriousness to address the maritime security issues,'' he said.

He also said the steady fall in piracy attacks indicated that a re-assessment of the Malacca Strait's insurance classification was required.

''We hope the international insurers (Lloyd's) will reconsider the decision to classify the Strait as a war zone,'' Najib said.

''Statistics don't bear out this fact.'' The London insurance market last year classed the Malacca Strait a ''war risk'' zone -- adding the sea lane to a list of 21 areas such as Iraq and Colombo that it deemed high risk and vulnerable to war, strikes and terrorism.

But Indonesian waters pose the world's great piracy risk, accounting for almost 30 percent of reported attacks in 2005, says the International Maritime Bureau, an ocean crime watchdog.

Global piracy fell in 2005, from 329 attacks in 2004 to 276 last year, with Indonesian attacks down from 94 to 79.

The four Southeast Asian nations guarding the Malacca Strait -- Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore -- began joint air patrols over the sea lane in September 2005 to combat piracy and terrorist threats.

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