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Thai maritime police arrest alleged pirates

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January 21, 2001 

BANGKOK--(AP) - Thai maritime police have arrested 20 alleged pirates suspected of robbing and blowing up a Thai fishing boat, a provincial police officer said Saturday.

The suspects were apprehended Thursday in the Andaman Sea off the Thai province of Ranong, 470 kilometers (292 miles) south of Bangkok, where they were hiding between two small islands close to Myanmar waters, said Maj. Suwat Sriklaw, a chief marine police investigator.

Four of the arrested men were Thais, and the others were from Myanmar, he said.

The pirates, heavily armed, allegedly attacked the Thai fishing boat on Jan. 11 as it was returning with a full catch of fish from waters off Mergui in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

They brought the boat back to Myanmar waters, transferred all its catch to their vessel and then blew it up by shooting its gas tank.

Suwat said one of the fishing boat's seven crew members drowned after they were forced to jump from their ship. He did not explain how the others returned to Thailand.

Suwat said the pirates were connected to an influential man in Ranong who acted as an intermediary when fishing boats were seized by pirates who asked for ransom.

"Before this case, no one dared make a complaint to police about fishing boat robberies or seizures," he said.