EDITORIAL
If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, the cost of combating piracy at sea can only be relentless suppression. That was the lesson the countries of Southeast Asia learned in the years they spent bringing under control the pirate menace off its coastlines and along the Malacca Straits. Now the focus of pirate activity has shifted to waters off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, and similar zeal and tenacity must be employed to eradicate them.
Although no longer in the spotlight, we still remain on our guard. Just last month armed Thai patrol boats took up station alongside naval units from Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to safeguard the Malacca Straits - the world's busiest waterway - against the ever-present threat of attacks from pirates, terrorists, drug-runners and arms smugglers.
This welcome Thai presence came five months after a Phuket-bound Thai freighter carrying two million litres of A-1 jet fuel was boarded by Indonesian-speaking pirates while negotiating the narrow Singapore channel. The crew was handcuffed and robbed at gunpoint. That took some of the shine off what had otherwise been an encouraging year, with Indonesia reporting only 23 attacks in the Malacca Straits in the first nine months compared to 37 a year ago. No longer is Southeast Asia the riskiest part of the world for seafarers, although its loss appears to have become East Africa's unwanted gain. Pirate attacks there are getting out of control.
There is little likelihood of Thai naval forces being deployed to this side of the Indian Ocean for convoy duty, which is unwelcome news for the Thai maritime industry which so far has had two ships seized by Somali pirates - the 16,000-tonne MV Thor Star belonging to Thoresen Thai Agencies which was hijacked on Aug 12 and released last month, and now a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members which was seized on Tuesday and all contact lost.
The numbers are becoming frightening. Attacks this year in Somali waters total at least 95, with 39 ships hijacked. Seventeen of these remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with arms and a huge Saudi Arabian supertanker fully loaded with oil.
Because the vast area in which the pirates prowl encompasses 2.6 million square kilometres criss-crossed by 21,000 ships a year, Western naval forces despair of securing all of it and have advised, in what sounds like a throwback to ancient times, that merchant ships arm themselves to repel boarders. But this is not always practical because crew sizes have shrunk as shipping companies automate more shipboard tasks. And the downturn in the global economy and consequent increase in poverty is spawning more pirates.
Frantic shipowners are doing what they can. Some are training their crews in piracy avoidance, crisis management and just learning how to stay alive. Others have gone further. High-voltage electrical shock wires have been installed on some ships in recent years along with high-pressure water hoses and flare guns. Intensely powerful lights that are temporarily blinding, together with sound vibrations that can shatter eardrums are also being employed.
These are desperate measures but the situation has become intolerable. The next step is more naval seapower to blockade the pirates' home ports and to provide additional military escorts for convoys moving along special sea corridors. Greater flexibility in interpreting the rules of engagement will be necessary. There is little time for diplomatic niceties when over a thousand Somali pirates are holding vital shipping lanes to ransom.
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