THEY would hide in swamps and mangroves in their small narrow boats; they would suddenly attack and empty the goods of ships that dared to sail along the Malacca Strait. They—the pirates—would appear and then disappear among the waves.

The pirates seemed to control every inch of the sea from the west to the southeast along a stretch of some 778 kilometers long and 2 to 100 kilometers wide. The geographical conditions of the Malacca Strait we