| Koch |
Christopher Koch, president and chief executive officer of the World Shipping Council, told members of the House Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, “while we do not wish to minimize the complexity of the legal issues involved, we encourage the United States to continue to play a leading role in helping design an agreed legal framework that will try and imprison convicted pirates.
“We also support and encourage the U.S. to work with other governments to establish agreements with states in the region that will allow use of their territory to hold captured pirates until they can be transferred to states that are able and willing to prosecute them,” Koch said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, noted that according to the International Maritime Bureau, there were 293 reported pirate attacks against oceangoing vessels in 2008. While pirate attacks occur sporadically in many parts of the world, piracy is most prevalent in the Horn of Africa region, where gangs from Somalia are seizing vessels and holding their crews for ransom.
Koch said U.S. and international groups should “work together to disrupt and dismantle pirate bases ashore and to deal with the political and economic forces that have made Somalia a breeding ground for illicit activity.”
He said U.N. Security Council Resolution 1851 “recognizes the urgency and the need for governments to take measures to address this continuing problem. An international solution to this problem is required sooner rather than later. It should be an international priority.”
The pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden region not only “represent a serious threat to global commerce, to the lives of seafarers of many nations, and to the freedom of the seas,” but also “burden an already struggling global economy by creating uncertainty regarding the safety, security and reliable delivery of international commerce,” Koch said.
He noted pirate activity has reached such proportions that some vessels are rerouting around the Cape of Good Hope or paying substantial war risk and other cost premiums to transit the region.
He noted that because of their relatively high speed of 18 knots or more and high freeboard — the distance from the waterline to the main deck — containerships and roll-on/roll-off carriers that comprise the World Shipping Council membership are less vulnerable to pirate attacks than some bulk carriers.
But he noted pirates are employing machine guns, rifles and rocket propelled grenades in attempt to slow or stop target ships by firing on them so the pirates can then use grappling hooks and portable ladders to get on board.
Although pirate skiffs can operate at 25-plus knots, he noted it is more difficult for them to keep up with a containership operating sustained speeds of 22 to 24 knots because the smaller vessels are more significantly impacted by waves and wind.
“Pirate attacks continue, as the facts of last week demonstrate,” he said, pointing to last week’s capture of the Longchamp, a German-operated liquefied petroleum gas carrier.
“As the pirates become financially stronger with their receipt of ransom payments, their opportunity to modernize their equipment also increases. Ransom payments, while appropriate to save lives, ships and cargoes and to protect the environment, provide additional financial resources for the pirates’ capabilities,” Koch said.
'The solution to the problem will require coordinated, sustained efforts by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, other nations and the maritime industry to protect ships from being hijacked while simultaneously addressing the root causes of the piracy itself — namely the presence of the failed State of Somalia in the region,” he said.
Koch noted that “to the best of our knowledge, commercial vessels generally do not employ armed guards” for a variety of reasons, including the fact that use of firearms could further escalate the situation and innocent lives may be lost, the discouraging of armed guards by some flag administrations, and substantial unresolved issues of liability if someone is injured or killed in the line of fire.' ' Chris Dupin
