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Cambodia skeptical about news of missing Malaysian oil tanker spotted in its sea

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Cambodian maritime commander said Thursday that his naval forces have searched islands in the sea following news report that a missing Malaysian oil tanker has been spotted in Cambodian waters, but found no trace of it.

"We have checked all targets at islands, but have not seen the said tanker," Vice Admiral Tea Sokha, commander of the Cambodian Maritime Space, told Xinhua over telephone. "We will continue to search it, sometimes, it is not located at our place, but 200 or 300 miles away from our place."

His comments came after Malaysia's state news agency Bernama reported Thursday that the Orkim Harmony with 22 crew aboard, which went missing off the east coast of the Johor state on June 11, had been spotted in Cambodian waters.

The small oil tanker disappeared en route from Malacca to Kuantan. It was carrying 6,000 metric tons of petrol when it lost contact at around 8:50 p.m. local time (1250 GMT) at about 30 nautical miles of Tanjung Sedili east of Johor.

Malaysian Navy Chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said the tanker was detected from the air by Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) aircraft, according to the Bernama.

"We have found the vessel and RMAF, MMEA and RAAF aircraft are tailing it from the air," he was quoted as saying, adding that the tanker had been repainted and renamed. Endi