Piracy increase 'alarming'

2005-11-16 12:42

Nairobi - Lawless Somalia cannot patrol its own waters and the neighbours to whom it has appealed for help have yet to devise a plan for dealing with increasingly daring pirates along an important shipping route.

Captains and crews can do little but try to avoid trouble, but that is becoming more difficult. The Somali pirates have turned their sights from fishing boats to bigger cargo vessels and even, in one recent case, a cruise ship full of tourists.

The pirates also are not only attacking near shore, but as far as 300km into the Indian Ocean, said John Muindi, the United Nations'International Maritime Organisation's regional co-ordinator for Eastern Africa.

For several months the International Maritime Bureau, a watchdog that is part of the International Chamber of Commerce, has warned ships to stay at least 240km away from Somalia's coastline.

Increase in attacks

In its most recent worldwide report on piracy, the bureau reported fewer attacks overall for the first nine months of 2005 compared to the same period last year. There were other trouble spots, such as Indonesia, but it said an increase in serious attacks off Somalia - 25 in the last six months - after a quiet spell of nearly two years was particularly alarming.

November 5 saw one of the boldest attacks. Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit, a cruise ship carrying Western tourists, about 160km off Somalia and fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

The crew used a weapon that directs earsplitting noise at attackers, then sped away. None of the passengers, most of them Americans, were injured, but one member of the 161-person crew was injured by shrapnel.

The cruise ship attack was unusual, in part because such ships are rare in the region. Seabourn Cruise Line, the United States-based owner of the Spirit, is the only major cruise operator to use the route, and its next cruise in the area is not scheduled until late next year.

Bookings holding steady

Seabourn Cruise Line has not decided whether to avoid the area off Somalia on future trips, company spokesperson Bruce Good said.

"If it began affecting bookings for that cruise, then I think we would be pushed to make a decision. But right now they are holding steady, so we're putting off a decision," he said.

Cargo ships do not always have a choice. In June, pirates hijacked a cargo ship carrying UN food aid for Somalis and held it for 100 days before releasing it.

Muindi said that this is a new trend among Somali pirates.

"They were only hijacking the small fishing vessels. Now they are attacking the big merchant ships," he said.

Piracy in Somalia, "can only be solved by international co-operation and action at the UN level," said Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of the International Maritime Bureau.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of 7 million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

Serious problem

A transitional government, formed in late 2004 after lengthy peace talks in Kenya, raised some hope. But members of the transitional government have been fighting among themselves and face serious opposition from warlords and religious extremists in Somalia.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi last month called on neighboring countries to send warships to patrol his 3 000km coast, Africa's longest.

Countries in the region say they realise the problem is serious, but that they have not yet discussed how to respond.

"We didn't foresee that such a thing will be such a big issue, so we never had a security (arrangement) to deal with such a thing," said Peter Marwa, the top conflict resolution official of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development. The regional body that steered Somalia toward forming its transitional government.

Marwa said the regional body would discuss piracy in Somalia at a yet-to-be scheduled ministerial meeting.

Piracy in Somalia also will be discussed by the 166-member International Maritime Organization at its regular annual meeting next week in London, Muindi said.

Pirates "have to be tackled by people who are also armed like them or more or better than them," Muindi said, adding that the details of which countries will contribute sailors and ships, and under whose mandate such a regional force would operate are to be discussed in London.

"The best scenario would be to train the Somalis to do the job themselves," but the country does not have an effective government, Muindi said. "So there has to be a mechanism now before they (the government) settle down."

Somalia's transitional government does not have a coast guard or navy. It began training recruits for a national police recently. It has no source of revenue and relies on financial and other aid from UN agencies, the European Union and western governments.

AP Business Writer John Pain contributed to this report from Miami.

- AP