An informal band of nations and organisations fighting piracy along Somalia's vast and lawless coastline vowed to try to persuade more merchant vessels to follow precautions adopted by the world's leading shipping, cargo and insurance organisations.
These self-protective measures, ranging from increased lookouts to zigzag manoeuvres to the use of razor wire and fire pumps, are based on recommendations by the European Union's maritime security centre for the Horn of Africa.
The pirates usually seize the ships or the crews without harming them, and they often receive what they want - tens of millions of US dollars in ransom, paid in cash.
Diplomats told the anti- piracy group that both industry and the UN Security Council had helped the effort - the 15-nation council by giving countries authorisation to enter Somalia's territorial waters, with advance notice, and use 'all necessary means' to stop piracy and armed robbery at sea.
'We are seeing the effects of the preventive measures taken by the industry,' said Carl Salicath, a senior adviser at Norway's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which chaired a day-long meeting at UN headquarters. It was the fifth such meeting of the so-called Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia since its formation last year.
'The successful hijacks are almost exclusively on ships not complying with the best management practices adopted by this group. This is by far the most important measure against piracy,' Mr Salicath said.
'But still, only 70-75 per cent of the ships passing through the Gulf of Aden follow the preventive measures. Our challenge is to achieve a much higher level of compliance.'
Mr Salicath said that another big factor is the military's protective naval escorts, and other counterpiracy measures, in the region. The group also has agreed to set up international funds to help pay the cost of prosecutions and beefed-up security.
Charles Petrie, a UN deputy special representative for Somalia, said that UN-sponsored anti- drug efforts also are playing a role.
Somali pirates now hold nine major vessels hostage and about 200 crew members, plus about six to seven Arab sailing dhows with an undetermined number of crew members, said Paul Chivers, chief of staff for the EU's naval operation off the coast of Somalia, known as Operation Atalanta.
Capt Chivers noted that most of the attacks are by pirates in 20-foot open boats or 'skiffs' attached to a 'mother ship' that venture hundreds of miles from shore, along a coastline roughly the size of the East Coast of the United States.
He said that the pirates usually hold ships for a minimum of six weeks, while negotiations are held for ransom.
'The number of attacks has gone up; the number of successful attacks has gone down,' Capt Chivers told a news conference. 'It would be dangerous to assume we have overcome the threat.'
The International Maritime Bureau said this month that sea attacks worldwide rose 39 per cent last year to 406 cases, the highest in six years. Somali pirates accounted for 217 of the attacks and seized 47 vessels. The number of attempted hijackings was nearly double the 111 attacks that Somali pirates launched in 2008.
Source : AP - Business Times, 01.02.10.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar