Piracy

INTERNATIONAL: PIRACY

Buccaneers!

New piracy laws urgently required

The recent hijacking of MV Nimatullah – a cargo vessel along with 14 Indian crew members, off the Somalian coast, highlights the growing menace of maritime piracy in the age of globalisation. The violation of commercial vessels plying the high seas by the pirates using sophisticated crafts and weaponry is a threat, which the international trading & security community is equally worried about. Looking at the quantum leap that maritime trade has been registering over the past few years (according to United Nations Trade and Development Council [UNTADC], maritime transportation increased from 27,635 billion tonne-miles in 2004 to 29,045 billion tonne-miles in 2005; the global merchant fleet too expanded at a rate of 7.2%, growing to 960 deadweight tonnes in the same period), this jump has been matched by a concomitant rise in the incidents of piracy – according to maritime agencies, since the 1990s, attacks against trade vessels have grown thrice.But on a positive note, according to the Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB; a part of the International Chamber of Commerce, dealing with threats to maritime trade), based at Kuala Lumpur, there has been a slight decrease in the incidents last year – only 236 cases were reported in 2006 as against 276 in 2005. However, one cannot afford to be complacent, because the menace is nowhere near the point of obliteration. This decline probably is the result of greater awareness about the problem and the geographic re-location of piracy ‘hot spots’ from the straits of Malacca towards the African coasts. Commenting on this shift, Dr. Vijay Sakhuja, a maritime expert with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, told B&E, “Southeast Asia is no longer the centre of global piracy. Significantly, as a result of considerable improvement in the security (of Southeast Asia), issues of navigation in the straits have taken priority and begun to dominate discussions. Due to lawlessness in Somalia, the Horn of Africa has emerged as the hub of piracy, and that is now flavoured with ransom demands, best demonstrated by a series of payoffs!”

Interestingly, despite the awareness about this problem, there exists no consensus on the definition of piracy. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS) defines piracy in terms of “unlawful acts committed by a private ship against another ship for private ends on the high seas.” The international Maritime Organization subscribes to the UNCLOS definition. IMB, however, accepts a more broad-based definition – “An act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the attempt to or capability to use force in the furtherance of that act.” This ambiguity is leading experts to question – is piracy merely an economic crime? Does “political piracy” (acts of maritime violations carried out to achieve political objectives) fall within its ambit? According to Captain Mukundan of IMB, “Political piracy threatens to rewrite the rules of engagement... Authorities need to recognise the motives and adopt new methods of tracking and deterring them.” Undoubtedly, maritime criminals are active in politically unstable regions, but can we include all acts (political, economic & cultural) under a single umbrella? This would make it cumbersome for the international community to distinguish terrorism from piracy. With the world still grappling to arrive at a consensus on what exactly constitutes terrorism, muddling with the accepted norms about piracy may only complicate the matters. New technology needs to be devised for better governance of the sea lanes for transportation and global trade to flourish, sans the nuisance of piracy.