Malaysian aid ship's first contact with Myanmar

The Myanmar navy vessel which made contact with the Nautical Aliya.

ANDAMAN SEA: The crackling voice came through the ceiling's speakers, cutting short conversation in the room.  

"Everyone go inside their rooms or the mess hall, do not go outside to the deck," a man's voice boomed over the speakers.  

We looked up at the speakers and heard footsteps and voices along one of the ship's many corridors.  

We went to take a closer look, opening the door and peering outside, shouting, "What's going on?"  

A few of the volunteers on the Nautical Aliya scurried by, and one of them stopped to say that it was the Myanmar military, but did not say more.  

The journalists in the room then ran out the door and up the ship's stairs, one floor after another and out to Captain Mohd Firdaus Faisal Mohamed's bridge.  

He was already there, flanked by his crew and a few of the ship's 185 passengers - volunteers of a mission to bring 2,300 tonnes of aid to Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.  

Thousands of Rohingya have fled alleged human rights abuses and violence in Myanmar in recent years, many coming by boat to Malaysia. Some have died on the way.  

The aid was supposed to reach Yangon Port between Feb 8 night and Feb 9 morning.  

"How do you receive, over? How do you read, over?" said a voice over the radio, words mixed with probably Myanmarese, coming from a ship too far away to be seen.  

"Yes, good afternoon," Firdaus replied, and then mentioned that a ship, a possible cargo tanker, was nearby.  

It seemed to be painted blue and would have been invisible against the blue sea and sky if not for its jagged rectangle-like shape, and more than 10km away.  

"Charlie-Alpha-Papa..." he added, reading out the other ship's name - Cape Flores - via phonetic code.

A small crowd - mixed with journalists and volunteers - was starting to gather around the console area where the captain stood, and he looked at them.  

"It's Myanmar. We just show some cooperation. They called the other vessel, but no reply," Firdaus said, and those nearby seemed to relax, starting to chat.  

Then the crackle came again, and people were hushed into silence.

Nautical Aliya's captain Mohd Firdaus on the phone with the captain of the Myanmar navy vessel Tuesday afternoon. 

Myanmar was asking questions: "What is your position? Your country name? What's your name?"  

These Firdaus replied, sometimes with phonetic code - his name - and the captain kept his cool.  

The crackle came again, and a small shape growing larger started to get closer to the ship, the words not understood.  

"Can you repeat again, sir?" Firdaus asked.  

"What's your destination?"  

"Yangon," Firdaus replied.  

Then the mission's security team said nearby: "Okay, everybody go back to your rooms. Go back. Media as well," leaving the mission's officials and crew behind.  

The warning came again over the speakers as we left, no one was to leave their rooms.  

Some of us ran to one of the rooms above the bridge, hoping to get a clearer view of the approaching ship.

It was clearly smaller than the mission ship, with perhaps two levels but with some tubes sticking out - guns.  

It cruised quickly by, towards the stern and around the port side, and it seemed to stay.  

Then a call came over the ship's speakers, about 70 minutes after the first warning: "Media, please come to the bridge."  

We rushed to a sofa near the captain, which had become the ship's official press conference area.  

In the background, through the ship's port windows, was the Myanmar navy ship, still cruising by.  

One of the mission chiefs, Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim arrived, and told reporters that Bangladesh was not allowing the ship to stop at Teknaf.  

Volunteers were also not allowed to get off, he said, let alone go to Rohingya refugee camps nearby. It was security problems, and the ship's draught was too deep.  

Then came the word on the Myanmar vessel.  

"This navy ship will escort us until Yangon Port to make sure we are safe," Azeez said, noting that the Malaysian Government had informed him by phone.  

"They're there so that pirates won't come close," a man nearby said a little later.  

Those on board were allowed to come out again, and they streamed through the corridors.  

But the navy vessel was gone. It seemed to slow down during the press conference, and went out of sight soon after.  

A Malaysian-led mission departed Port Klang on Feb 4 for Myanmar and Bangladesh with aid meant for Rohingyas in both countries.