IN THE MALACCA STRAITS — Two small fishing boats draw a rope across the path of a freighter, letting the big ship's motion pull them forward and swing them alongside.
Grappling hooks are pitched up the three-story height of the cargo ship, and a dozen men from each boat, masked and armed with machetes or pistols, scramble up rope ladders to the deck.
The attackers tie up the crew and raid the ship's safe, bridge and radio room for electrical equipment, cash and anything else they can carry, even wallets and watches.
Although the Malacca Straits have long been among the world's most dangerous shipping lanes for pirate attacks, this kind of raid--its description compiled from reports by pirate-chasing authorities and victims of actual attacks--was unheard of four years ago, before Indonesia crashed into economic and political turmoil.
Now the narrow passage between the Indonesian island of Sumatra on one side and Malaysia and Singapore on the other is suffering what even the most hardened piracy-watchers consider an epidemic of attacks, fueled by desperate villagers choosing piracy over poverty.
One-third of the 68 piracy attacks reported in the first three months of this year were off the Indonesian archipelago's 13,000 islands, the International Maritime Bureau says.
Worldwide, pirate attacks reported to the Malaysia-based watchdog group reached an all-time high of 269 in 2000, up almost 60% from the previous year. The bureau, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce financed by commercial ship operators and insurers, estimates only half of pirate attacks are reported.
The sharpest spike was in Southeast Asia, where more than a third of the world's ocean trade passes through the territory of half a dozen countries. Operators say international insurance and freight costs are in danger of spiraling upward because of the threat.
The waters include the Malacca Straits and other shipping lanes that lie along the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines, both poor and rife with turmoil. Between them, they encompass 20,000 islands.
In a report at the end of April, the bureau repeated a conclusion of many recent reports: Chronic political instability in Indonesia has loosened the government's control of far-flung provinces and made law enforcement difficult, while also creating poverty that feeds piracy.
The Philippines, another country racked by political strife, was also criticized by the group.
