Pirates rob passenger ferry

By ELLEN TIAMU
A PASSENGER ferry was held up by pirates in coastal waters off Bukawa between Finschhafen and Lae, Morobe, yesterday morning.
They held up passengers and crew of the mv Geyam­sao and made off with the ship’s takings.
The Lutheran Shipping-owned vessel left Buki wharf, Finschhafen, at about 9.30am yesterday and the piracy took place two hours later, ferry captain Zeriga Oida said.
It was not known how many men were involved in the hold-up at sea.
Oida said some of the men boarded the vessel as pretending to be passengers at Buki, with guns and bush knives hidden in their luggage.
He said the onboard pirates waited until they arrived at Cape Arkona, off Yambo and Widuru villages, before they took their weapons out and ordered everyone to lie face down on the lower deck.
About 200 passengers and five crew members were aboard the vessel at the
time.
Taking advantage of the lack of mobile phone coverage in the area, two of the pirates stood guard upstairs – one at the wheelhouse and another towards the back of the top deck – while two other­s stood guard over the passengers downstairs.
Other men armed with bush knives then rummaged through the belongings of some passengers and stealing whatever they could find.
One passenger, the mayor of Gagidu (Finschhafen) station, Manase Laina, had his mobile phone, laptop, an airline ticket to Port Moresby and a considerable sum of money taken off him.
Oida said he was at the wheel when a man armed with a gun appeared on the port side and ordered him to do as he was told. 
Another man then entered the wheelhouse and damaged the ship’s communication equipment. 
Oida said the piracy and hold-up took 10 minutes.
The robbers left in two banana boats that had come to pick them up in what was obvious­ly a planned operation.
About K8,000 in passenger fares was taken along with all the contents of the vessel’s canteen.
A couple of young men who tried to resist the pirates suffered minor cuts and grazes, while another man had to be taken for a medical check-up in Lae after being kicked in the stomach.
Provincial police commander David Warap said they had leads and were working on them.