The government is trying to combat the problem from multiple fronts
A video clip circulating on the Internet shows a Russian crew rescuing their ship from Somalian pirates and then blowing up the pirates and their ship.
Maritime analysts may privately approve of this, invoking an 18th century law that empowers the rescuing ship’s captain to deal with the pirates. But is tit-for-tat the solution?
Governments know the pirates can retaliate. This fear factor favours the pirates. This explains how a most impoverished nation challenges the might of everyone whose ships sail through the busy sea lane along the Horn of Africa.
From just a dozen incidents in 2004, the waters of the Gulf of Aden have seen rapid spiralling of acts of piracy and hijacking. Between 2009 and last year, there were nearly 400 attacks, nearly one-third being successful.
If Malacca was notorious some years ago, and although threat of piracy returning to that region cannot be minimised, the current flavour is the Horn of Africa through which pass half the world’s containerised freight, a third of the bulk cargo and two-thirds of oil shipments.
Piracy can be attributed to the political vacuum created by strife in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia, fishing by foreign firms and lack of proper governance in Somalia and Puntland.
They have combined to cause rampant unemployment. Fishermen have lost means of livelihood. To eke out a living desperados are willing to risk lives at sea, being employed by warlords and now religious extremists of Al Shabab.
Ransom paid by ship owners, those who charter those ships and owners of the cargo is estimated at US$150 million (RM473 million). But as Indian Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma points out, the navies are spending US$10 billion-plus on anti-piracy operations.
Piracy is big business. Maritime affairs analyst Commodore (Rtd) Ranjit Rai says those who pay ransom do not mind coughing up since the ships and the cargo involved are worth much more.
Warlords and pirates, he says, get half the ransom. The rest goes to the go-betweens — lawyers, facilitators and carriers of booty.
As pirates extend their reach into the Indian Ocean and move closer to the Indian coast, it is hurting everyone.
The United Nations’ Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Organisation that frames rules for safety of ships has extended the war risk limits for insurance purposes from Aden to 75o East — a few hundred kilometres from Mumbai.
All ships transiting that area have to pay an extra premium, as a percentage of the value of the ship and cargo.
This adds to inflation on imports and exports, which is transferred to the consumer.
Whether or not states are able or willing to do what is necessary, the Indian Ocean has become a new zone of strategic competition. Various powers jostle for influence.
Not surprising, their navies are there — because they are there – flexing maritime muscles. Coordination among them has just about begun.
Big ships and weaponry are engaged in countering boats with AK-47 armed pirates, when this could be done with well-armed offshore patrol vessels.
It is essentially a law enforcement problem and can be best addressed by constabulary forces. Excessive use of force has led to escalation in response by pirates, a conference by oceans beyond piracy concluded.
The Indian government informed a court last year-end that six of its ships were hijacked by Somali pirates, in which 90 people, including 53 Indians, were trapped.
Among the worst sufferers, it has sought to integrate combating piracy with maritime planning for economic, political and strategic needs. Parliament is to consider a bill empowering navy and coast guard to combat piracy anywhere in the world.
India is setting up a Far Eastern Naval Command (FENC) on the Andaman Islands to cover the entire Andaman Sea between the Bay of Bengal and the Malacca Straits.
Scheduled to be fully developed this year, FENC will have a chain of small anchor stations and three main bases between Narcondam and Indira Point in the eastern Indian Ocean waters around Sri Lanka.
India cannot fight alone. Former Indian Navy chief, Admiral Arun Prakash has asked that New Delhi convene a meeting of Indian Ocean and other maritime nations to discuss a substantive multi-national initiative to combat piracy simultaneously on three fronts: at sea, in the Somalian homeland and in specially constituted courts.
So, what will work — what the Russians supposedly did, or a collective, coordinated international effort?
Source: New Straits Times
