Now stop piracy, on the high seas

Source
China Daily
Editor
Huang Panyue
Time
2019-08-28 08:55:18

Piracy has been an intractable international problem for thousands of years. Indeed, 2,000 years ago as a young man, Julius Caesar was taken hostage by a gang of pirates. After his hefty ransom was paid, and he was released, he later tracked them down and executed them. The recent kidnapping of Chinese ship crews from two vessels, off Cameroon, reminds us that the problem remains.

A couple of centuries ago, Britain's Royal Navy led the armed opposition to pirates on the high seas, eventually reducing that maritime threat to life and international trade to a negligible level. Ruthless methods were adopted. The Royal Navy sank as many pirate vessels as it could. Those (pirates) who made an illegal living by violently attacking merchant shipping were violently attacked. The navy even took the fight to the pirates on land, destroying village ports where they were based.

Sadly, the scourge of piracy has continued off-and-on, and is today a very real threat to lives and cargoes, particularly in certain regions, such as off the coasts of Africa and Southern Arabia.

It is not limited to those areas. It also continues to be a threat around the numerous islands of East Asian countries, such as Malaysia and the Philippines.

Several warships from various national navies, including the Chinese, US and British sea powers, have been deployed in these dangerous areas in a bid to eliminate the pirates. But these areas are so large, the passage of commercial shipping so busy, and the pirate ships so numerous, that so far the scourge of piracy remains a dire threat.

The European Union's first maritime force provides counter-piracy patrols in some of the areas most infested with pirates. This is of some help in addressing the problem, but those anti-piracy resources are stretched pretty thinly across vast oceans. More - much more needs to be done to wipe out piracy effectively.

Sometimes a ship's cargo is simply stolen, or held to ransom. Sometimes the crew members are kidnapped and held to ransom against a threat to their lives, and sometimes both. Unfortunately, in some cases enormous ransom demands of the pirates are paid, thus solving one immediate problem but thereby encouraging more kidnappings from pirates in the future.

The International Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre records a growth in the number of pirate attacks, up from 180 incidents in 2017 to 201 last year.

The United Nations' international enforcement efforts have always generated a mixed report-card. Some of their organizations, such as the World Health Organization, achieve much that is good. But when looking at certain other areas where strong UN action could be more effective, such as when combating the illegal narcotics trade, or limiting human trafficking, we can see clearly that the UN has not yet realized its full potential.

Piracy puts civilian ships of all nations at risk, and makes being a sailor on a civilian vessel a dangerous occupation. Since all nations face the potential disruption of their imports and exports, including the vital sea transport of their food and energy resources (i.e. oil), they should come together to fight piracy through UN-arranged anti-piracy military measures. It is simply not good enough for countries to leave it to the few, such as to China, Britain and the US, to combat piracy by deploying their warships whilst most countries contribute nothing to the battle.

The UN could take the lead in suppressing piracy. A UN-arranged, and UN-led naval task force, made up of warships provided on loan by many more UN countries, should be established. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of naval vessels, would have to be involved to provide more concentrated coverage to vast areas of sea that most badly need to be patrolled.

And the rules of engagement should be extended, that pirate ships are blown out of the water on sight. There should be a UN set-up international court to try suspected pirates from anywhere, and impose the death penalty as a deterrent on those who are convicted.

Online videos can be viewed of several foolhardy pirate vessels attempting to attack patrolling warships. Any warship under attack from pirates is likely to fire back, with vastly superior gunfire, to make short work of sinking the attacking pirate ships.

The proposed UN-led naval task force should deploy warships in greater numbers, and with more wide-ranging patrols, and these should be tasked with shooting at pirate vessels as soon as they can be located. Civilian ships under pirate attack could whistle up a nearby UN warship, if these patrols are expanded widely enough, to come to their aid and rescue them from such attack - preferably by swiftly sinking the pirate ships.

China receives a large proportion of its oil needs from the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman etc. This vital fuel is carried by ship through the Straits of Hormuz; altogether 20 percent of the world's oil passes through that restricted area. Recently, there have been attacks upon passing oil tankers in this area: it remains a matter of debate whether such attacks are conducted by pirates or are state-sponsored operations from a nearby country. Again, having more international warships patrolling that area, to protect passing oil tankers, is something that a UN-led naval task force could provide.

Oil-producing countries, such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which depend on oil sales for a large part of their economy, should contribute more money to help provide this UN-led naval task force protection.

And the old wartime skills of arranging convoys, escorted by warships, could be reintroduced, to make shipping safer for all concerned.

The author is a Hong Kong-based veteran commentator on Asian affairs and a university lecturer who has worked in more than 30 countries. He is also honorary lifetime adviser to the Hong Kong Federation of the Blind. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

 

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