A

fter being held hostage by Somali pirates for 46 days, 20 Indonesian sailors from the vessel MV Sinar Kudus finally breathed fresh air Sunday afternoon after the pirates agreed with the ransom payment offered by both the Indonesian authorities and the ship’s owner.

The sailors’ release was followed by the death of four pirates, the last of the 35 pirates who had gradually left the ship in groups, after an armed battle with a joint rescue unit of Indonesian special forces later in the evening.

We highly praise the hostage release — no matter the method and how the shipmen were released — as it had succeeded in bringing all of the 20 men back home safely. And despite the delayed rescue operation by Indonesian Military troops, which was taken only after it was assured that all hostages were safe, the whole hostage release process deserves a two thumbs-up as it broke the record in saving men held hostage at sea in less than 150 days.

The safe release of the hostages therefore ends weeks of a fierce debate of the need to conduct an immediate rescue operation to free the shipmen, with many observers demanding a military operation as the first option while stressing that we, as a nation, must not bow to such acts of piracy. They urged Indonesia to prove to the international community that we could tackle piracy through military means, especially because of the successful rescue operation to free the hijacked passengers of Garuda Indonesia’s DC-9 Woyla in Don Muang Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1981.

Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said Sunday the government chose not to prioritize the military option, as it could have put the hostages in danger.

“The Association of Trade Ship Captains and the families of the men preferred to negotiate,” he said.

Publicly listed PT Samudera Indonesia, the owner of the hijacked ship, said a ransom was paid to the pirates
who attacked and hijacked the ship on March 16 when it was sailing toward the Aden Gulf, carrying 8,300 tons of ferronickel worth an estimated Rp 1.5 trillion (US$174.42 million). While the ship’s cargo was untouched, the company’s management remained tightlipped over the ransom amount paid to the pirates.

As the 20 shipmen are, or will soon be, on their way back home to Indonesia after receiving medical help at the nearest port in Salalah, Oman, the ship will complete its journey to Rotterdam with a new crew of 20 sailors after docking at Salalah for repairs.

The ship will be escorted by the Indonesian Navy en route to the Netherlands.

The international shipping industry, including Indonesian-flagged ships, has long and will continue to face threats from Somali pirates.

In response, it is perhaps the right time to consider deploying Indonesian troops to escort Indonesian-flagged ships passing through pirate-infested waters in the future. Our Navy could join the band of international patrol ships to help secure international sea routes from piracy.