Seafarer recounts encounter with pirates in Malacca Strait

Ko Myo Thiha Than, a Myanmar seafarer retold The Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM) the story of his experience in encountering pirates in the Strait of Malacca.
Pirates raided the ship he worked on on 15 July when he was alone inside the engine room, he said.
“It was about 2 am. Two masked pirates came in first and I wasn’t aware that they were holding guns at first. Then, they called their group turning back to the door. At that moment, I had a walkie-talkie. One of the masked men aimed at me and asked me to remove the walkie-talkie and lie on my stomach when I was going to send messages,” he recounted.
The two masked pirates tied his hands on his back.
“They took me into a spare room and asked me to lie on my stomach. And the man with the gun stayed near me and the rest took all things and all left the spare room. I managed to untie myself and called the bridge after locking all doors in the electric room,” he said.
It took about 10-15 minutes to untie his hands and pirates were already gone when he reported to the ship, he said. “The message I just want to deliver to either other seafarers or those who are trying to become seafarers is nothing is more important than your life and they don’t hurt you until you try to fight back or if they get they want. It is safe if you understand what they say and act prudently,” he said. — Htet Oo Maung/ZS