By Neville Smith
It has been an important fortnight in the fight against Somali piracy. The visit of UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon to IMO to jointly launch the IMO’s response initiative was the crowning moment, drawing the great and the good as well as the world’s media. The timing could not have been more fortuitous given the terrible toll of attacks in 2010 and the recent escalation of violence, as naval forces and pirates become increasingly drawn into conflict, with seafarers caught in the firing line. The attacks, rescues and retaliation are a worrying development in an already ghastly situation, but in a way the upsurge in violence, coming as it did at the same time as an IMO piracy workshop and shortly before Mr. Ban’s visit, could prove to be a tipping point. Not before time of course – this is a problem that has been allowed to fester by the lack of a co-ordinated response from the international community to the problems onshore in Somalia. The willingness of Somalia’s neighbours to prosecute pirates has also been undermined by prevarication and perhaps worst of all, ship owners continue to flout the basic anti-piracy precautions developed by their own industry. For those of us who assume that the industry is “doing everything it can” the evidence to the contrary is shocking. At a workshop held during the STCW meeting two weeks ago, an EU NAVFOR commander denounced a compliance culture among flag states and shipping companies for undermining the efforts of the naval forces. Colonel Richard Spencer excoriated the shipping industry for in many cases failing to take adequate self-protection measures or assist the co-ordinating naval bodies, even when they had advised authorities they were in the high risk zone. “NATO has taken to phoning up ships within 50 miles of a mothership sighting to warn them of the risk because ships are not ready the NAV warnings they put out. They are sailing blind,” he told delegates, including member states. Col. Spencer acknowledged the inadequacy of the political response and the lack of naval resources available but said fewer attacks would succeed if ships could hold off the pirates for 45 minutes. “You’ve got to play the game [and] fight harder for your ships. I recognise they are civilians but if it were me in a choice between 45 minutes and eight months held hostage, I’m in for a fight.” But while some flag states were registering ships for passage and providing LRIT information, their ships “as we watch them go by” were obviously not implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs), he said. “There is a reason why some flags consistently have the highest number of ships taken. I’m speechless as to why some flag states are not doing more. There are an awful lot of club class flights and conferences but are they meeting their responsibilities?” Col. Spencer added that the number of “high risk” ships registered by flag states and owners for passage through the Gulf of Aden IRTC is falling, while registration of low and medium risk ships is climbing. Although registrations were growing overall, along with increased flow of LRIT data to MSC-HOA and MARLO co-ordinating offices, flag states were not applying enough pressure to owners to apply BMPs. “What concerns me is the growth in registration of moderate or low risk ships while substantial or severe risk ships is falling off. I can’t understand that,” he said. He said naval forces had “observed non-compliance” on the ships of the top four flag states, Liberia, Panama, Marshall Islands and Bahamas, despite their registration and submission of LRIT data. He said the navies received no LRIT data from India, Norway, Singapore and Hong Kong flags in 2010 but stressed that following BMPs remained “the best way to defend a pirate attack”. Arsenio Dominguez of the Panama ship registry defended flag states from this criticism, telling the workshop that registers are sometimes only aware of pirate attacks from media reports and without better feedback from the navies and operators alike, flags could not learn and improve. “It is difficult for the Panama Maritime Authority to know in all cases that its ships have been attacked. We have heard that 48 of 60 ships [in the EU NAVFOR sample] were not following BMPs but I don’t take that as a criticism, that is valuable information,” he said. MSC-HOA UKMTO and MARLO should improve their communication channel to the flag states, he said not just in the aftermath of attacks but once vessels are subsequently released. In addition operators must take the advice of flag states seriously. “We do contact operators and make them aware they need to do their part but it is a difficult problem for us if we are contacting them for the second or third time when they are not fulfilling their obligations,” he added. As if there was not enough to be done at sea, ashore the challenge is if anything greater. A lack of political will among developed nations is preventing regional states prosecuting piracy suspects according to the chairman of the UN Contact Group on Piracy’s Working Group 1. Chris Holtby of the UK Foreign Office told the workshop that the region was still waiting for promised assistance. “This all rests on political will and by and large, that will is not there. This is a multi-faceted problem and needs a unified response.” He said the international community had “failed to build the prison capacity needed. Most of the countries in this room have not contributed.” The Seychelles in particular, Mr. Holtby said, “would prosecute every suspect we give them” but no country (including Djibouti agreement signatories) had taken the political risk of investing in enforcement. “The EU has tens of millions of Euros ready to invest in regional action but is almost alone. Even when countries do contribute, they don’t want to tell you what they are doing,” he added. Mr. Ban told last week’s press conference that he saw “heightened” political will to build capacity in the region and to focus on rebuilding Somalia as a long term deterrent to piracy. All the countries of the world that depend on the flow of good by sea should give him all the support possible to make that happen. In the meantime, ship owners must continue to put their own house in order. The increasing flow of press releases expressing outrage at pirate tactics will fall on stony ground if it continues to be shown that owners are not doing everything in their power to deter piracy. Worse, in the decade or more that it might take to stabilise Somalia, they will lose the battle for political will that might finally end the problem once and for all.
Editor’s Note: Neville Smith is a freelance journalist
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