By Pottengal Mukundan

London– Piracy of the traditional skull and crossbones variety may have gone out of fashion but today’s pirates are too often ignored or quite literally allowed to get away with murder. Now, the International Maritime Bureau, a private sector organization dedicated to the fight against crime on the high seas, is sounding the alarm about the increase in piratical attacks against shipping in the waters off the coast of Somalia. These attacks are carried out by heavily armed gangs using automatic weapons and fast motor launches. There are no naval patrols in these waters able to stop or deter them.

Since March 2005, there have been 31 serious attacks off the Somali coast after a quiet spell of almost two years. Four of them took place over two days in the first week of November. These attacks are carried out in international waters, far from the East African coast. The attacks were rarely reported in the media until quite recently. That changed this month when a gang of pirates  in fast fibreglass-bottomed boats attacked the luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The attack was foiled when the captain deployed a high-decibel sound gun to deafen the raiders. None of the passengers was injured . One crew member sustained shrapnel wounds.

Unless international action is taken against the pirates, it is difficult to see how shipping can be protected. Naval patrols by some of the world’s established maritime powers are needed. These warships should be under orders to intercept pirates and prevent them from taking the hijacked vessel into Somali waters. The arrest and prosecution of pirates would result in an immediate reduction in these attacks. Should the international community fail to act in Somalia, there is a strong risk that the country will become a haven for international criminals operating in the wider region.

Somaliaoccupies a strategic location on the Horn of Africa. To the north are the Red Sea and the Suez Canal with its heavy traffic of shipping between Europe and Asia. The country is close to anarchy, without a functioning national government for the past 14 years.

The private sector has become closely involved in the fight against piracy. The IMB, a division of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, operates a piracy-reporting centre, based in Kuala Lumpur. The centre receives reports of acts of piracy worldwide and issues daily warnings by satellite to ships at sea. It provides assistance without charge to vessels that are attacked.

Worldwide, the IMB has reported a decline in attacks in the past 12 months: a total of 205 in the first nine months of 2005, compared with 251 in the same period in 2004. But this fall will not ease the fears of ships’ crews of a sudden assault by determined gangs who are willing to commit murder or cast crews adrift. In the nine-month period, 259 crew members were taken hostage, 12 were kidnapped and 19 injured.

The coastal waters of Indonesia remain a danger spot, with 61 incidents so far this year. In the Malacca Straits, quiet for two months after the tsunami of December 2004, ships are on alert, and there have been ten attacks since February. Law enforcement action in the Straits has helped to bring the attacks under control. There are two other areas of concern: attacks on ships off Basra oil terminal in Iraq, despite the nearby presence of naval ships; and attacks around Bonny River in Nigeria.

Clearly, piracy is an ever-present scourge. There is mounting evidence that well organized crime syndicates are increasingly involved. Seafarers justly expect coastal states in high risk areas to improve protection.

Pottengal Mukundan is Director of the ICC International Maritime Bureau.

The article appeared on 17 November 2005 in the South China Morning Post  www.scmp.com .