Pirates target Iraq, Somalia

2005-07-20 11:05

Kuala Lumpur - The number of pirate attacks worldwide hit a six-year low in the first half of 2005, but Iraq and Somalia emerged as increasingly perilous hotspots for commercial ships, a maritime watchdog said on Wednesday.

Globally, 127 vessels were attacked from January to June, a 30% drop from 182 cases in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau said in a report released by its piracy watch centre in Kuala Lumpur.

It was the lowest first-half figure since 1999, the British-based bureau reported.

Several countries reported fewer attacks, including Indonesia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Ghana, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Ecuador, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

No seafarers have been killed by pirates so far in 2005 compared to 30 by this time last year, the report said. Thirteen crew were injured, down from 44 in the first six months of 2004.

Worrying trend

But the International Maritime Bureau warned of "a new and worrying trend" of armed robberies in Iraqi waters, noting that four "serious incidents" were reported there between April and June, despite the presence of United States-led coalition naval ships in the area.

Before this year, "attacks in and around Iraq were almost nonexistent," the bureau noted. It did not give details on why Iraqi waters have become more dangerous.

Security also worsened dramatically off Somalia's east coast, where bandits with guns and grenades attacked eight vessels and sometimes seized hostages for ransom. Only one attack occurred in Somalia between January and June last year.

"Pirates operating off Somalia have become increasingly audacious," bureau Director Pottengal Mukundan said. "Their demands for ransom are higher than ever before and negotiations for the release of the vessel and crew can become difficult and prolonged."

Ships not making scheduled calls on Somalian ports should remain at least 80km or "as far away as practical" from the east coast of the country, which is beset by political problems and poor law enforcement, the report said.

Indonesia's waters remained the world's most pirate-infested, though the number of attacks across the country's sprawling archipelago so far this year slipped to 42 - one-third of the worldwide total - compared to 50 in the first half of 2004.

That tally did not include attacks in the Malacca Strait, the busy shipping lane that separates Indonesia's Sumatra island, Singapore and peninsular Malaysia. The strait was also safer, with eight attacks so far this year compared to 20 in the same timeframe in 2004, the bureau said, partly because pirates were deterred by a large naval presence after the December 26 tsunami.

- AP