Events

• April - The Cypriot-registered fuel tanker Valiant Carrier is hijacked in the Malacca Strait when pirates stormed the ship after throwing Molotov cocktail
  Molotov cocktail
  The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
  
  s onto the deck. During the attack three of ship's officers are stabbed, as well a seven-month-old girl, before leaving the ship adrift. The crew is able to regain control of the ship, avoiding collision with a nearby island and preventing a massive oil spill.
• April 28 - Holding a ships officer hostage, a ship is robbed of $9,926 and the master's gold bangle after being boarded in Bangka Strait
  Bangka Strait
  Bangka Strait is a strait which separates the island of Sumatra and Bangka Island in the Java Sea, Indonesia.-See also:* Japanese cruiser Ashigara* List of straits...
  
  , Indonesia
  Indonesia
  Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
  
  . http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/BG1379.cfm
• June 8 - A ship bound for Songkhla, Thailand is boarded by pirates in two speedboats off the east coast of Malaysia and hijacked. While holding one crew member hostage, the remaining sixteen crewmen were forced into a lifeboat and set adrift, sailing away with 2,060 tons of gas oil before Chinese authorities eventually detained the ship. http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/BG1379.cfm
• October 22 - The Japanese cargo ship Alondra Rainbow is attacked and boarded by ten pirates, eventually setting 17 crew members adrift on one of the ship's life rafts. Without food or water, the sailors drift on the open sea for more than a week before being rescued. The ship, which had since changed its name and was sailing under the flag of Belize
  Belize
  Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
  
  , is later sighted by the Indian navy which captures the ship after a two-day chase. It is later discovered, partly from the confessions of the captured pirates while in custody, that they had been planning to exchange the ship's cargo of aluminum ingots for weapons to arm separatist guerillas fighting in Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
  
  .