CREW OF TUGBOAT HELD BY PIRATES IN GULF OF ADEN SAFE

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 19 (Bernama) -- All the 11 crew members of the Masindra 7, a
tugboat owned by a Malaysian company which was taken hostage by pirates in the
waters of Yemen on Tuesday, are reported to be safe and in good health.

Foreign Minister Dr Rais Yatim said Friday the ministry had informed
the Indonesian ambassador here of this as all the crew members were Indonesian
nationals.

"The pirates, in their satellite communication with the tugboat owner,
Masindra Shipping (M) Sdn, said that the vessel would be taken to Somalian
waters and the payment of ransom would be discussed later, he told reporters
here.

He said that from the briefing given by a Masindra Shipping Sdn Bhd
representative, the tugboat had food supply for 30 days.

He said the company also hoped for cooperation from the Malaysian
government to end the crisis without any untoward incident.

The Port Klang-registered tugboat, which was with a barge, was about 45
nautical miles off the Yemen coast when it was hijacked at 12.15am Malaysian
time.

Dr Rais said Muhibbah Engineering, a Malaysian company which hired the
tugboat and barge, had informed the Malaysian mission in Sana'a of the
hijacking.

He also said that the Royal Malaysian Navy vessel, KD Sri Indera Sakti,
which is now in the Gulf of Aden, was ready to offer assistance to all Malaysian
merchant ships plying the area.

"The Malaysian Shipping Association has been informed of this to spread the
word to all Malaysian shipping companies," he added.

On Thursday Defence Forces chief General Abdul Aziz Zainal said the KD
Sri Indera Sakti had not been informed of the movements of Masindra 7 by its
owners.

Abdul Aziz had said that Malaysian merchant ships should inform the RMN
vessel if they wanted to pass through the waters there to facilitate
coordiantion and prevent attacks by pirates.

On Wednesday, the KD Sri Indera Sakti helped save a China-registered vesel,
Zhenhua 4, from being hijacked by pirates in the gulf.

The Malaysian vessel was sent to the gulf following the hijacking of two
MISC ships four months ago.

The MT Bunga Melati 2 with 29 Malaysian and 10 Filipino crew members on
board was hijacked on Aug 19 and 10 days later, the MT Bunga Melati 5 with 41
crew members -- 36 Malaysians and the rest Filipinos -- suffered the same fate.

A Filipino crew member in the Aug 19 hijacking was killed by stray bullets.
All the crew members of the two vessels were subsequently released after
undisclosed sums were paid as ransom.
-- BERNAMA