The spate of
pirate attacks on small tankers and other vessels in South East Asia over the
last three months has followed a predictable pattern, and so has the industry
response. The boarding of vessels by armed men who take control of the ship,
destroy communications equipment, siphon off the liquid cargo to another small
tanker or barge and disembark after stealing the crew’s valuables is followed,
usually, by warnings broadcast to Captains of the increased threat and statements
from countries around the kill zone (usually Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia)
promising to do more. The number of attacks has doubled in the last three
years.
A third of
global trade passes through these waters, but, as usual, we in shipping are
reacting to threats rather than taking early and proven decisive action. Which
is this- ships should be sailing with armed guards at the first sign of
trouble.
In a rare
success, coordination between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore did manage to
foil an attack last month, the pirates fleeing the hijacked ship when they saw
a patrol boat approach. But sailors like me, who have spent years on short runs
in the South China Sea, the Singapore and Malacca Straits and in the rivers of
Indonesia- and have been boarded by pirates once or twice- will tell you how
quick and easy it is for a couple of boats to appear out of nowhere in those
restricted waters dotted with hundreds of islands, and to disappear equally
quickly after an attack.
Piracy in
these waters has been around forever, although thankfully in a more benign form
than, for example, Somali piracy; I used to be more concerned about a collision
or grounding with pirates aboard than being killed by them. But that is because
ships cannot be hijacked for long here; there is no failed State around.
The simple
fact is that criminals around the world know for sure, thanks to the ease with
which South East Asian, Somali and Nigerian piracy has flourished, how
unprotected merchant ships really are. Terrorists know how vulnerable these
ships are, especially when sailing in restricted waters like the Suez, in
narrow straits, or close to the coast. Most of all, they know that the industry
is impotent; it cannot- or will not- take quick action.
This must change.
The default setting must be that ships must be able to arm themselves. That the
ability to fire a couple of warning shots in the air has deterred pirate
attacks around the world is beyond dispute. No ship with armed guards has been
taken so far. Even off Somalia. Patrols by the navies of the world are an inferior
deterrent. Arming ships should be our first response, not our last; it works.
The UN,
along with the IMO and the rest of the maritime industry, has no real option
except to prepare the groundwork- and quickly, please- to make the option of
armed guards a real (and real time) possibility. To enact legislation and then persuade countries around the world
that a few guns aboard a merchant vessel calling their ports do not constitute
either gunrunning, a national security threat or anything else that is sinister.
To put mechanisms in place that will give ship owners the option of arming their
ships whenever the threat of piracy- or terrorism- is foreseen.
Else we- and
our crews- will forever remain hostage to anybody who can put a fast skiff in
the water with a bunch of men armed with guns. Or worse, explosives.
.
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