2011 begins on a happy note for 19 Indian crew of MV Marida Marguerite, who have been set free by the Somali pirates. The pirates seized their 13,168-tonne chemical tanker on May 8 about 120 nautical miles south of Salalah in Oman as the vessel was sailing towards Antwerp from Kandla port on the Gujarat coast. Besides the Indians, there were two Bangladeshis and one Ukrainian amongst the crew. All them were freed on Tuesday December 28.
The German owner of the ship reportedly a ransom of $5.5 million; there is no official word on the trade off, understandably.
The end of Marida Marguerite ordeal doesn’t signal a let-up in piracy, as hours before it was set free, another cargo vessel, MV Ems River was hijacked about 175 nautical miles north east of Salalah. The Antigua/Barbuda-flagged and German-owned vessel was on its way to San Nicolas, Greece, from Jebel Ali in the UAE at the time of the attack, according to a report on the website of European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR). It had a crew of eight — one Romanian and seven Filipinos, and was carrying a cargo of petroleum.
The EUNAVFOR has been carrying out anti-piracy drive codenamed, “Operation Atlanta” in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin, for the past two years. It has had a limited impact. There are now 25 vessels and 587 hostages being held by pirates off the coast of Somalia.
Djibouti, Somalia and adjacent areas of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, Balikpapan and Jakarta in Indonesia, and the northeast Sumatra coast are amongst the most piracy prone areas listed by Lloyd’s of London. Maritime security expert, Sam Bateman points out that sea pirates are not a new phenomenon in Asian waters.
Earlier talk of piracy was confined mostly to ship crews and owners, their insurers and specialists in maritime security. The advent of armed boatloads of modern-day pirates off the coast of Somalia changed the scene altogether, Sam Bateman wrote in a recent Global Asia article while making an indepth examination of the problem which has acquired economic, strategic and political overtones. Pirate attacks were down slightly in the first nine months of 2010 vis-à-vis 2009 – to 126 from 168. Like in the previous years, 2010 saw the greatest concentration of piracy incidents off the Horn of Africa.
SOMALI PIRATES
Somali pirates are interested in ransom as the Marida Marguerite episode shows, and they don’t appear to be interested in any other pickings. Once the seafaring nations pooled their energies and stepped up vigil along the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden, the pirates shifted focus to Southern Red Sea, Eastern Arabian Sea, Bangladesh waters, and even the areas around the ports of Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines in Southeast Asia.
While the good old Malacca Strait has become comparatively safe, thanks to better policing, two hot spots have emerged. One is the Southern South China Sea off the east coast of Malaysia, and the area around the Indonesian islands of Mangkai, Anambas and Natuna. The second is the Eastern Singapore Strait off the coast of Johor in Malaysia.
Going by reports in the local media, the situation off Mangkai and Anambas islands is cause for concern. There were fifteen attacks between January and September 2010, which work out to a little more than one and a half attack per month. Most of these attacks were hit and run raids aimed at theft under the cover of darkness.
Expert view is that old and smaller vessels are most prone to hijack given the limitations on their speed and the ‘poor state’ of their health. The best insurance cover against pirates is compliance with best management practices, engaging fully with the security forces and employing a well-trained and motivated crew are, according to Sam Bateman, who is a Senior Fellow in the Maritime Security Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Singapore. Big vessels transiting high-risk areas do the right thing but the oldies are not following these procedures. And such vessels have become the easy prey.
Safety and security of shipping is the responsibility of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). It has limited reach and resources with the annual budget pegged at around $42 million. Drive against sea pirates is anyhow the primary responsibility of littoral States. They must improve policing on and off-shore in their own interest. As a major power with a blue water navy, which had demonstrated its fire power and reach time and again, India must take the leading role in guarding the sea lanes.
Already, the Indian Navy has mobilized a multi-ship force to check the rise in piracy in the Eastern Arabian Sea. Its Dornier aircraft are on regular recce to locate pirate skiffs and mother ships on the prowl in the area. Indian navy must focus adequate attention on Southeast Asia sea lanes as well and lend a helping hand to Indonesia and Malaysia in securing their seas.
