"I want all your money. If you no like hurt, no speak. Follow order. Also you take crew money."
That is the voice of piracy in the 1990s, vicious, brutal and far removed from the romantic stereotype of swashbuckling adven-tur-ers sailing the high seas in search of lost treasure.The demand came in a scribbled note handed over to the British captain of a vessel that recently fell victim to a pirate attack in Indonesian waters.
The captain, according to Eric Ellen of the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB), panicked after opening his ship's safe for the pirates and ran down two flights of stairs. He was shot dead.
The pirates also killed the ship's mate and shot off the radar and radio before making off with $4,000 from the safe.
Ellen, an expert on world piracy, is concerned that such incidents are again on the increase in Southeast Asia after a period of relative calm.
"I think these attacks are very worrying because they mirror those of 1991 and 1992 in which the master and crew would be tied up and the ship left without navigation," Ellen told Reuters.
The number of pirate attacks in the region fell sharply from 200 in 1991 to just one recorded in 1992 after patrols were set up to police the waters. This year eight attacks have been reported in the area since October 27 alone, Ellen said.
"The problem is that even patrols lose interest when the level of attacks declines. It is human nature, of course, but there should be no easing up of vigilance," Ellen said.
"We hope the Indonesian authorities will take action to halt the attacks," he said.
Ellen's bureau, a private, nonprofit organization funded by the International Chamber of Commerce, has issued a warning about the dangers of piracy to sea captains.
It said it was worried that some incidents were not being reported and urged the shipping industry to report all pirate acts so that the situation could be accurately assessed.
"I am deeply disappointed by the number of attacks that are not reported," said Ellen.
Pirate attacks on the high seas are largely confined to the Far East, though in Brazil and West Africa armed robbery in ports is a common occurence.
Another cause for concern is the phenomemon of "phantom ships," when gangs - usually Chinese - seize a vessel, change its name and registration, load up with cargo and subsequently disappear with both the ship and its contents.
"We don't know how many cargoes have disappeared in this way into China," Ellen said.
This kind of smuggling is especially rife in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi, where lax import procedures and possible corruption are allowing vessels to unload illegal cargoes with impunity, according to a recent IMB newsletter.