Last week, a Vietnamese oil tanker went missing. It was soon believed it had been seized by pirates for its cargo. Soon afterwards, the oil tanker’s crew was released. The MT Sunrise 689 had disappeared shortly after leaving Singapore, and was heading towards Quang Tri port in Vietnam. The crew later declared the ship had been attacked by more than 10 men, who were armed with guns and knives. They had boarded on their ship and began beating them. Before leaving the ship, they had siphoned some of the oil cargo. The crew was set free on Thursday morning. The director of the Vietnam’s Maritime Department declared: “The pirates broke the communication system, robbed the oil and goods on board”. He added that the pirated had taken about a third of the cargo.
Nguyen Quyet Thang told a Vietnamese newspaper that the pirates had pulled near the oil tanker in a high-speed boat, as well as two other fishing boat. They were attacked two hours later, after having left Singapore on the 2nd of October. The pirates then quickly come on board and seized control of the oil tanker. Some of the crew members tried to put up a fight, against the pirates. Their efforts were in vain. The pirates had struck them. Some of the crew members suffered injuries: one got a broken toe and an injured kneecap. The other one severely injured his ankle. While the pirates were controlling the oil tanker, they only received one meal per day.
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Pham Van Hoang, the deputy captain of the oil tanker said he had reason to believe the pirates had been from Indonesia. He told the Associated Press the following, while still on the oil tanker: “They put knives on our throats and threatened to kill us if we resist”. The MT Sunrise 689 oil tanker is the 12th ship to be hijacked since April 2014, in South Eastern Asia. There had been a rise in piracy across southern Asia, according to the International Maritime Bureau. The rise had been more significant in the Malacca Strait, between Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. The efforts made to handle to issue proved mostly futile.