Seizures of ships by pirates off the coast of East Africa increased sevenfold from 2005 to 2009, according to the International Maritime Organisation, although naval operations in the area appear to be paying off, producing a significant drop in the number of attacks in the first quarter of 2010.

In the Gulf of Aden, where Nato and other ships patrol, there were 17 incidents in the first three months of 2010, compared with 41 in the same period last year.

For all that, regular news of seizures in the Gulf of Aden has left more than one household of Bulgaria’s merchant mariners in the grip of worry, and the country is by no means alone in wanting an end to the scourge.

In April 2010, the United Nations Security Council put forward the possibility of setting up special international tribunals to try pirates.
A resolution adopted by the Security Council called for all states to criminalise piracy in their domestic laws and “favourably consider the prosecution of suspected, and imprisonment of suspected, pirates apprehended off the coast of Somalia, consistent with applicable human rights law”.

No one could fail to sit up and take notice when, in early May, Moscow sent special forces to act against the hijackers of oil tanker Moscow University, with a pirate killed and 10 captured in a shootout. The Russians said that they put the corpse and the 10 prisoners in a boat, gave them food and water but no navigation equipment, and let them go. Media reports suggest none of the hapless boatload survived.

Russian news agency Interfax quoted the defence ministry’s Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov as saying that inadequacies in international law were the reason to let the pirates go, even though Russia initially said that the pirates would be taken to Moscow for trial.

Action stations
In Kenya, there are about 100 pirates already on trial or awaiting trial; there are 38 in the Seychelles and a number have been transported for trial to, among others, the United States, France and the Netherlands, according to a May 7 report by the BBC.

In April, it emerged that warships from Nato’s counter-piracy mission, code-named Operation Ocean Shield, together with vessels from the EU Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) and Combined Maritime Force were increasingly working together in the waters of the Somali Basin to deter and disrupt attacks from pirate gangs.
Ocean Shield, the successor to the earlier Allied Provider and Allied Protector operations, was approved by the Atlantic Council in August 2009 and has been extended until the end of 2012.

A statement by Allied Maritime Command Headquarters Northwood said that while the Gulf of Aden had seen a drop in piracy over the past year, due in part to the warship patrols from maritime nations, pirate attacks in the Somali Basin – an area the size of Australia – had risen in recent months.

At the time, the Nato task force conducting Ocean Shield was one of three coalition task forces operating in the fight against piracy. The task force was made up of five ships, one each from Britain’s Royal Navy, and the United States, Turkish, Greek and Italian navies. Other countries that routinely have contributed ships are Germany and Spain.

An important aspect of Ocean Shield is that it additionally offers states in the area assistance in their own capacity to combat piracy, at their request, according to Nato.

The politicians
There has been no shortage of input from politicians about proposals for action against piracy, and the need to deal with the situation on land in Somalia has been raised in the debate.

In mid-May 2010, the UN General Assembly held a day-long informal meeting on piracy, with assembly president Ali Treki quoted in a UN News Service report as having called for broader international efforts against piracy.

He called for a “truly holistic approach” covering political, security, governance and humanitarian needs in the Horn of Africa country, which has had no functioning central government and which has been torn by fighting among factions for close to 20 years.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that piracy could not be solved at sea alone but needed action on land to re-establish security and stability.

“There is simply too much water to patrol, and an almost endless supply of pirates,” Ban said.
Ban is among those scheduled to travel to Istanbul for a high-level international conference on Somalia on May 22. The conference, co-hosted by the UN and the Turkish government, is intended to advance Somalia’s peace process which aims to foster political stability, security and reconstruction.

The Security Council has requested that Ban present a report within three months on possible options for prosecuting and imprisoning suspects in connection with piracy and armed robbery at sea in the Horn of Africa.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was scheduled for a May 18 to 21 series of visits to Kenya, Tanzania and Seychelles, the countries most affected by piracy off the east coast of the continent, “to explore with them operations for effective and sustainable solutions,” her office said ahead of the visit.

“Piracy is one of the big challenges of our times both for the region and for the international community,” Ashton said. “It undermines maritime security in the Indian Ocean and stability and development in the region. We need to tackle both the root-causes and the symptoms of the problem in a comprehensive manner. We want to build a partnership with the countries in the region towards sustainable solutions based on local ownership with international support,” she said.

During her visit, Ashton was scheduled to visit one of the vessels as well as surveillance aircraft taking part in Operation Atalanta, which was launched by the EU in December 2008 to contribute to the protection of World Food Programme vessels delivering food aid to displaced people in Somalia and to the protection of vulnerable vessels in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia.

The EU recently launched a training mission, EUTM, in Uganda to train Somali military personnel. In April, a UN trust fund set up as part of the international fight against maritime piracy unveiled $2.1 million of projects against piracy.

The five projects being backed by the fund are focused largely on efforts to prosecute piracy suspects, the UN News Service said. Four projects will help strengthen institutions in the Seychelles and the autonomous Somali regions of Puntland and Somaliland in efforts to mentor prosecutors and police, build and renovate prisons, review domestic laws on piracy and increase the capacity of local courts. A fifth project is aimed at helping local media disseminate anti-piracy messages in Somalia.

Previously, the fund set up an emergency money facility to help pay the costs involved in prosecuting piracy suspects, such as travel expenses for witnesses, court equipment and the transport of suspect.

Ships’ log
These are some of the incidents of hijacking of ships with Bulgarians aboard as crew

April 2009: The 32 000-ton Malaspina Castle, with 16 Bulgarian sailors on board, is hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. The British-owned and Italian-operated ship and its crew were released on May 10 after the payment of a $2 million ransom.

December 2009: The St James Park, with five Bulgarian crew out of a total complement of 26, is hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

January 2010: The UK-flagged Asian Glory is hijacked; eight of its crew of 25, including the captain, are Bulgarians. A month later, the pirates are reported to have demanded a ransom of $15 million.

May 2010: Somali pirates hijack the Panega, a chemical tanker en route to be cut up for scrap. It has a 15-member all-Bulgarian crew.

May 2010: The St James Park is freed, without the size of the ransom being disclosed.
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Source:- sofiaecho

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