Renewed call for action against pirates

Renewed call for action against pirates    There were renewed calls for action against Somali piracy after Tuesday’s murder of four Americans aboard the yacht Quest.
   “The callous murder of these four innocent people is appalling. Maybe it will help raise the level of awareness that today there are over 800 seafarers are currently held hostage in appalling conditions by Somali pirates,” said Chris Koch of the World Shipping Council.
   “Ships are being attacked daily and the lawlessness is spreading. The world’s governments need to do a better job of addressing the severity of the crisis, not only at sea, but including supporting some kind of effort on land to train and support reasonable anti-piracy capabilities,” he added.

Koch

   David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), said, 'Somali pirate attacks have become increasingly savage. Forget the excuses about them protecting their fishing grounds or not killing their hostages. The reality is execution, pillage and brutality thousands of miles from their home country.
   “Only decisive interception and prosecution will work, and it’s long past time that those countries who have been shirking it follow the example of those who have been doing their duty and stopping and arresting the pirates,” he added.
   The Quest was hijacked on Friday. It was owned and sailed by Scott and Jean Adam of California, who had two other passengers, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, on board.
   It’s the first time Americans have been killed since piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean flared up four years ago.
   The Navy said the Quest was being followed by several of its ships and that the military was negotiating the release of the four hostages with two pirates who had come over from the yacht when a rocket grenade was launched at a Navy ship and gunfire was heard coming from the Quest Tuesday morning.
   Navy Seals then boarded the 58-foot sailing yacht and killed two pirates. The 13 other pirates on the Quest surrendered. The remains of two pirates, apparently killed by their comrades, were also discovered on the yacht. Along with the two pirates who had been negotiating with the Navy, a total of 19 pirates were apparently involved in the attack on the Quest. Three of the hostages were dead when the Navy Seals arrived; Macay was still alive, but the sailors were unable to save her.
   A former FBI negotiator who has been involved in standoffs with Somali pirates said there are ominous signs that hostage-takers are becoming more violent.
   “What’s changed so dramatically from my perspective is that heretofore you could negotiate over a long period of time. You’d likely come up with a logical conclusion. It may involve paying a ransom. But life was preserved. They did not want to kill anybody.
   “What I’m seeing now is a change. That the pirates are willing to use force,” Jack Cloonan said on CNN’s “AC 360” program. A former FBI agent, Cloonan is president of Clayton Consultants Inc., a risk management company.
   Pirates have typically been more interested in obtaining a ransom than harming hostages. Ransoms are several times bigger than they were when the first sea-kidnappings took place, with one report of a ship being released for a payoff of $9.5 million, Martin Murphy, a visiting fellow at the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies at King’s College in London, said on PBS Newshour.
   Another new development is that mother ships used as a base of operations and source of provisions far out to sea also have hostages onboard.
   “And they will use the hostages as a shield in case the mother ship is attacked,” he said.
   Cloonan also questioned the Navy’s decision to shadow the pirates, saying it ramped up the anxiety of the pirates and increased the likelihood of something going wrong. A rescue operation was virtually impossible with so many pirates on such a small boat, he added.
   Cloonan speculated the shooting may have started because of a dispute among the pirates.
   “Being followed by the U.S. Navy over the course of several days will probably be a contributing factor to this,” he said.
   The United Nation’s International Maritime Organization has made “Piracy: Orchestrating the Response” the theme of its World Maritime Day for 2011.
   There are at least 31 vessels and 700 people being held hostage off the coast of Somalia, according to the EU Naval Force Somalia.

Mitropoulos

   Last week IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos met with industry and seafarer representatives and all reiterated the need for urgent and coordinated action from governments, the shipping industry the maritime community to address the escalating crisis of kidnap and ransom of seafarers off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and in the western Indian Ocean.
   A “Round Table” of international shipping associations agreed that the situation off the coast of Somalia is nearing crisis point with escalating levels of violence, increased risk to seafarers' lives and significant disruption to global trade and the world economy.
   The Round Table includes representatives from the ITF, BIMCO, the International Chamber of Shipping, organizations representing independent bulk ship (INTERCARGO) and tanker owners (INTERTANKO), and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF).
   The meeting at the IMO agreed on the need for:
   ' Compliance with the IMO guidance and best management practices.
   ' Improved cooperation, communication with, and deployment of, naval forces operating in the area.
   ' More proactive measures to avoid ships becoming victim to this organized criminal activity at sea.
   “This deplorable act firmly underscores the need for continued international progress toward confronting the shared security challenge posed by piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.
   Noting the reported use of armed personnel by some ship owners in response to the growing threat of piracy attacks, the IMO-Round Table meeting maintained that the decision to arm should be decided by the shipping companies concerned in consultation with the flag State.
   Although recognizing that some shipping companies feel compelled to employ such armed personnel, the Round Table and IMO reiterated the need to ensure that the recommended preventive, evasive and defensive measures, including reporting, are effectively implemented. ' Chris Dupin and Eric Kulisch