15

The Ship

2009 . . . A crucial interdiction . . . Weapons go missing . . . Captain Bruce seeks a way out . . . A reporter under threat

O n August 19, 2009, customs officials in the port city of Bataan, three hours west of Manila, received a tip: A large ship was anchored off the coast, carrying suspicious cargo. When three Philippine port officers motored out to the vessel, they noted that it lacked a national flag, although the word Panama was painted on its hull. They boarded the ship, called the M/V Captain Ufuk, and questioned the skipper, a South African named Law- rence John Burne. The rest of the thirteen-member crew were from the Republic of Georgia and spoke no English. One officer noticed twenty large unmarked wooden crates on deck. When Burne was unable to produce a cargo manifest for the boxes, the port officer called his superiors. Soon, a team of cus- toms agents arrived with reinforcements from the Philippine Na- tional Police and Coast Guard. In three of the crates, they found fifty-four Indonesian-made assault rifles. A fourth contained forty- five bayonets and 120 empty gun magazines. The arms appeared to be only the remainders of a much larger shipment. During Burne's interrogation, he revealed that he had very re-