HK shipowners join appeal for full naval action against pirates

THE Hong Kong Shipowners Association (HKSA) and International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), a London-based merchant shipping trade association, have issued an urgent appeal to governments to stamp out piracy off Somalia and in the Indian Ocean.

"There is growing concern that the international community is instead treating the current level of attacks against shipping as somehow 'tolerable.'" Said the HKSA.

"Pirates are being given a message that their criminal activity carries very few risks in comparison to the payments. As a result, the number of pirates is growing, and there is real danger that, in the absence of a firm response, their methods of hijack and violent kidnapping will be successfully emulated by others elsewhere," the HKSA said.

Said ICS chairman Spyros Polemis: "The unacceptable situation, with seafarers lives being threatened - and Somali pirates operating with impunity - cannot be allowed to continue," ICS chairman Spyros Polemis said.

Fifteen hundred seafarers have been taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean in the past couple of years near the Gulf of Aden and they are often held for ransom "for months at a time", he said.

"If a similar number of aircraft passengers had been taken hostage there would undoubtedly have been a more robust response," Mr Polemis said.

"However, many governments seem oblivious to the fact that ships carry around 90 per cent of world trade, and that security of major seaways is strategically vital to the functioning of the global economy," said the statement.

It said that in addition to calling for governments to take a more strategic approach to the suppression of piracy, the shipping industry is seeking refinements to the existing military response.

"While the military has been in providing protection in the Gulf of Aden, pirates are now operating throughout the northwest Indian Ocean. On any given day--in an area of one million square miles--only about 12 military vessels are available to come to the aid of merchant ships under attack (and these are focused on the Gulf of Aden).

"Little is being done to prevent the pirates from operating from their bases in Somalia, or to disable the 'mother ships' that are used to launch attacks up to 1,000 miles from the Somali coast," said the statement.

(Source: www.schednet.com)