SHIPPING'S PIRACY APPEAL AT MEPC
Tuesday, 07 October 2008
THE major shipping industry organisations broke with normal protocol yesterday by using the start of this week's IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting to make an impassioned plea for action to protect merchant ships from pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
A statement was read out on behalf of BIMCO, Intercargo, The International Group, InterManager, Intertanko, IPTA, ITF, IUMI, OCIMF, SIGTTO and ICS.
It says: “As organisations we are looking forward to a week of debate on the environmental performance of shipping and not least on the challenge of reducing carbon emissions from international shipping. But the dreadful problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden is also at the forefront of our mind.
“Mr Chairman, such is the state of lawlessness in the Gulf of Aden that attacks on innocent merchant ships are taking place every single day. Ships and their crews are being captured and held to ransom by organised armed criminal gangs seemingly able to operate with impunity.”
The industry bodies note that, in June of this year, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1816 that allowed States cooperating with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government to enter the country's territorial waters and use all the necessary means to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery in a manner consistent with action permitted on the High Seas.
Th statement adds: “The Secretary-General has recognised the massive scale of this issue and we are grateful for his personal intervention which led directly to the adoption of this resolution. It is a fundamental principle of UNCLOS that the High Seas shall be used for peaceful purposes and furthermore that all States shall co-operate to the fullest extent possible in the repression of piracy on the High Seas ….. These are the principles that also now apply in Somalian waters.”
The appeal continues: “So far, in a response to resolution 1816, some states have deployed a limited number of warships to the region. Mr Chairman, this is an enormous area of water through which passes a significant portion of the world’s trade and an even more significant percentage of its oil supply – more than 10% of the world’s traded oil. At any one moment around 300 ships are passing through the area serving the needs of the nations and peoples of the world; their right to the freedom of the High Seas for lawful purposes is under intolerable threat from organised criminals. The stress on the captured crews and on other seafarers who listen to their frantic, often unanswered, radio calls for assistance can scarcely be imagined.”
The shipping bodies are: “The fact that successful attacks are being carried out with ruthless determination, virtually every single day and that a dozen ships and more than 250 seafarers are being held captive, today, demonstrates without a shadow of doubt that insufficient resources are being applied to this shocking problem. We could not imagine that such complacency would apply if civil aircraft were the target of unlawful attacks.”
Implicitly referring to comments by senior naval figures the statement continues: “Calls for the industry to arm itself for protection are inappropriate, and only serve to deepen the sense of lawlessness and the abandonment of international legal principles in these waters.”
The industry asks in the statement for three specific things: a commitment to increased numbers of deployed warships in the Gulf of Aden and to their coordinated action; the renewal of UN Security Council resolution 1816 for a longer time frame and to strengthen the text on actions required to repress piracy and an agreement to establish a legal jurisdiction to identify and punish criminals under due process.
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