Shippers urge naval blockade

2008-11-25 07:44

Kuala Lumpur - Shipping officials from around the world have called for a military blockade along Somalia's coast to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea. Yemen's government said Somali pirates have seized another ship.

Peter Swift, managing director of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, said on Monday that stronger naval action - including aerial support - is necessary to battle rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.

But Nato, which has four warships off the coast of Somalia, rejected a blockade.

Some 20 tankers sail through the sea lane daily. But many tanker owners are considering a massive detour around southern Africa to avoid pirates, which will delay delivery and push costs up by 30%, Swift said.

The association, whose members own 2 900 tankers or 75% of the world's fleet, opposes attempts to arm merchant ships because it could escalate the violence and put crew members at even greater risk, he said.

"The other option is perhaps putting a blockade around Somalia and introducing the idea of intercepting vessels leaving Somalia rather than to try to protect the whole of the Gulf of Aden," Swift said.

Much shorter route

The Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than travelling around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Somali pirates have become increasingly brazen, seizing eight vessels in the past two weeks, including a huge Saudi supertanker loaded with $100m worth of crude oil.

On Monday, Yemen's Interior Ministry said Somali pirates had hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Arabian Sea. It said communication with the vessel was lost last Tuesday after it had been out to sea for a week.

The ship is called Adina and it was not immediately clear what cargo it was carrying. The US 5th Fleet based in Bahrain could not confirm the hijacking.

A blockade along Somalia's 2 400 mile coastline would not be easy.

"But some intervention there may be effective," Swift told reporters on the sidelines of a shipping conference in Malaysia.

US Gen John Craddock, Nato's supreme allied commander, said on Monday the alliance's mandate is solely to escort World Food Programme ships to Somalia and to conduct anti-piracy patrols.

Islamic insurgency

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that a blockade of ports was "not contemplated by Nato".

Somalia, an impoverished nation caught up in an Islamic insurgency, has not had a functioning government since 1991.

There have been 95 pirate attacks so far this year in Somali waters, with 39 ships hijacked.

Fifteen ships with nearly 300 crew are still in the hands of Somali pirates, who dock the hijacked vessels near the eastern and southern coast as they negotiate for ransom.

The Baltic and International Maritime Council, the world's largest private shipping organisation, echoed calls for greater military action.

- AP