Nato eyes piracy operations

2008-11-18 21:10

Brussels - Nato is considering whether to launch long-term missions to counter piracy, a spokesperson said on Tuesday, as pirates anchored a captured Saudi super-tanker off the coast of Somalia.

"There will be a second discussion in NATO referring to a potential longer-term role" in anti-piracy operations, spokesperson James Appathurai told reporters in Brussels.

Nato has four ships - from Britain, Greece, Italy and Turkey - on patrol in the waters off Somalia, with two protecting UN food aid convoys to the strife-torn Horn of Africa country.

The mission, Nato's first-ever against pirates and which is commanded from Naples, southern Italy, ends in mid-December when the bigger European Union Operation Atalanta is to be put in place.

"The EU presence will be bigger and more designed for the mission," Appathurai said, but he added that the military alliance is wondering "would anything complementary be necessary" for the EU.

He added that Nato played no role in response to the seizure of the oil-laden Saudi tanker, the Sirius Star, which was taken at the weekend in waters off the coast of Kenya and Tanzania.

On Tuesday, the super-tanker, carrying $100m of oil, was anchored off the Somali piracy hub port of Haradhere.

"We are not in the area," the spokesperson said. "This happened thousands of miles away from the place where the Nato operation is supposed to take place."

According to the US navy, the tanker - which is as big as three soccer fields - is the largest ship ever seized by pirates and the hijacking was the farthest out to sea Somali bandits have attacked a vessel.

Experts say the attack shows few ships are safe sailing the Indian Ocean.

Appathurai noted that Nato had escorted about 7 000 tons of humanitarian aid to Somalia since its operation began this month, and cited the UN World Food Programme as saying that no pirate attacks had hit its ships since.

The WFP ships 30 000 to 35 000 tons of aid into Somalia each month.

Pirates are well organised in the area where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal through which an estimated 30% of the world's oil transits.

They operate high-powered speedboats and are heavily armed, sometimes holding ships for weeks until they are released for large ransoms paid by governments or owners.

The International Maritime Bureau has reported that at least 92 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, of which 36 were hijacked. Of those, 14 vessels and more than 268 crew were still in the hands of pirates.

- AFP