U.N. group discusses “pirate court”

U.N. group discusses “pirate court”

U.N. group discusses “pirate court”

      A United Nations group meeting in New York last week emphasized the need to prosecute pirates and suggested a specialized piracy court might be a good idea.
      The U.N. Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia said one of its working groups discussing a way to supplement national prosecution “showed that the most feasible model would be a specialized or dedicated piracy chamber — with or without international elements — established within the existing domestic criminal justice system of one or more states and located in one or more states willing and able to undertake prosecution, including Somalia when this becomes possible.”
      The group also formally adopted a mode of cooperation between China and the Western naval coalition patrolling the Gulf of Aden.
      Carl Salicath, the group's chairman, said the agreement with China “will make the patrolling more efficient.”
      In its statement following a Jan. 28 meeting, the contact group noted “piracy attacks remain at a significant and worrying level and the area of attacks are expanding into the Indian Ocean, which requires an effective military response.”
      The group reiterated the need for ship owners to follow “best management practices” to protect themselves from pirates, saying that while most ship owners are following them, a minority are not.
      'There are almost no ships that actually follow the best-management practices being captured in the Gulf of Aden,”   
Salicath said. “Our challenge is that there are ships that still don't follow these practices,' he said, explaining that 70 percent to 75 percent of ships follow them.
      Meanwhile, the NATO Shipping Center reported Saturday that pirates may be planning to use a captured car carrier as a platform from which to launch attacks. The ship, operated by Zodia Maritime Agencies, was captured by pirates on Jan. 1, about 900 nautical miles north of the Seychelles and 600 miles from the coast of Somalia.