Asia-Pacific
Singapore raises security alert after Malacca threat
By Sanjeev Miglani (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-06 08:00
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Container ships and oil tankers are seen in the shipping lanes off the coast of Singapore on Friday. Singapore said on Friday it had raised alert levels in the citystate and is taking various measures to harden its security from land checkpoints to the sea.VIVEK PRAKASH / REUTERS
Checks tightened at casino resorts, airport after Navy warns of attacks
SINGAPORE - Singapore said on Friday it had raised alert levels in the city-state and beefed up security at its airport and new casino resorts after a warning by its navy of possible attacks on oil tankers in a key shipping lane.
"We received intelligence from our liaison partners about this possible plot to go and attack vessels coming through Singapore waters through the Strait of Malacca," Singapore's Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng told parliament, according to state broadcaster ChannelNews Asia.
The Strait of Malacca is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Malaysia and Indonesia said on Thursday they were boosting security after Singapore's navy warned of possible attacks.
Wong said Singapore is taking "various measures" to harden its security from land checkpoints to the sea.
The 900-km long (550 miles) Malacca Strait links Asia with the Middle East and Europe, carrying about 40 percent of the world's trade.
More than 50,000 merchant ships ply through the waterway every year.
The narrow and congested waterway is becoming increasingly important strategically to Beijing, with nearly 80 percent of China's crude oil imports passing through it from the Middle East and Africa.
An attack that closed the Strait of Malacca or the Singapore port even temporarily could have a disproportionate impact on global trade, since Singapore is the world's top container shipping port and biggest ship refuelling hub.
Thursday's warning did not name a group or say where the intelligence it was based on came from but militants have long had Singapore in their sights.
A Jemaah Islamiyah plot for multiple attacks on the city-state was uncovered in December 2001.
Internal security and policing in Singapore are far ahead of neighboring states, but the escape of an al Qaida-linked militant, Mas Selamat Kastari, from prison in 2008 was a lapse that showed security is not infallible.
REUTERS
(China Daily 03/06/2010 page8)
