Piracy: Jurisdiction And Rules Of Engagement Causing Concern

• Jurisdiction and laws remain major piracy problem
The question of what to do with captured pirate suspects remains one of the major stumbling blocks facing naval and merchant shipping which is trying to come to terms with the scourge of pirates, particularly those from Somalia.
In many cases naval ships have released pirate suspects after intercepting their vessels, sometimes caught in the act of attacking merchant shipping. After confiscating the weapons and other ‘pirate equipment’ lie additional fuel and ladders, the suspects are taken back to Somalia and put ashore. Sometimes they are freed in one of their skiffs with enough fuel to reach their homeland.
In some instances captured pirates have been taken to Kenya or the Seychelles for trial before a court of law – both countries having agreed to deal with such matters and having hurried through legislation enabling such action. This has been after strong pressure from the international community and with promises of financial assistance, which hasn’t always been forthcoming.
Malaysia has suddenly found itself in the position of having to decide on what action to take with captured pirates after a warship of the Royal Malaysian Navy successfully retook a Malaysian chemical products tanker, the BUNGA LAUREL which earlier had been seized by Somali pirates. After freeing the 23 crew members of the tanker, Malaysian authorities are now left with the problem of how to deal with pirates found on board the ship. Bunga Laurel was on charter to the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation (MISC) and was attacked about 300 n.miles east of Oman.

Making Sense Of Piracy Attacks?
A Hamburg court is trying to make sense of a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia last April. But even as many hope the trial will produce a precedent for Europe’s approach to high seas crime, the court can’t even figure out how old the suspects are. The challenges to justice are immense.
Youssef M.’s daily routine has remained largely unchanged of late. Every day, the young Somali sits in a Hamburg courtroom, headphones firmly clamped to his ears, and listens attentively to a running translation of the proceedings against him.
Whether he is indeed guilty of the crimes he has been charged with seems beyond question. He belongs to a group of 10 Somalis caught by Dutch marines last April 5. The group tried to hijack a German cargo ship, the MV Taipan, but couldn’t find the crew and were caught red-handed.
Nevertheless, the ongoing trial, which began last November, could have far-reaching implications for the future of ongoing efforts to stem rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia. With Kenya last year refusing to try any more Somali pirates on Europe’s behalf, Hamburg jumped into the void — and the ongoing proceedings may set a precedent for Western justice when it comes to robbery on the high seas.
But the trial has been full of absurdities. Not only has it been difficult to ascertain the defendants’ ages, but the court is faced with thorny questions about how exactly German law should approach outlaws from a failed state.
‘A New Social and Legal Order’
And it has been the defendants’ lawyers’ job to make those questions even more difficult to answer. “Youssef M. finds himself in a completely new social and legal order,” his lawyer, Rainer Pohlen, said during proceedings on Monday. He argued that his client was 16 years old — young enough to be considered for Hamburg’s youth-welfare system. Pohlen then asked the prosecution to drop charges against Youssef and place him under state protection.
There, Pohlen argued, he might be able to learn German and vital job skills on the way to building a new life as a law-abiding immigrant. “He won’t have to fight for his daily bread here,” Pohlen argued. “He would have a completely different set of opportunities.”
Hamburg state prosecutors, perhaps not surprisingly, refused to drop charges on Monday, arguing that court medical experts have put his age somewhat higher than 16. They also noted that some of the pirates — no one is sure yet who — opened fire on the Taipan’s bridge as they chased the ship. “The captain had to fear for his life,” state prosecutors said.
The 10 pirates attacked the Taipan last April about 580 nautical miles from the eastern coast of Somalia. By the time they boarded, Captain Dierk Eggers and his crew had disappeared into a hidden safe room. In the absence of a hostage situation, an elite squad of Dutch marines decided to storm the ship. No one died in the resulting gunfire, and the Dutch arrested the Somalis and freed the Taipan crew. It’s considered one of the most successful counter-piracy operations since international navies started patrolling off the coast of Somalia in 2008.
No Birth Certificates
Since then, though, the case has become decidedly less clear-cut. The Dutch insisted on extraditing the Somali prisoners to Germany, because the ship belonged to the Hamburg-based firm Komrowski. And in Hamburg, the pirates are being tried in a juvenile court, even though they’re clearly not all juveniles. Just how old they really are, however, is impossible to ascertain with certainty. The Somali government collapsed 20 years ago and none of the pirates have birth certificates.
Youssef M. claims to be 16. Court-appointed medical experts, however, argue that he’s closer to 18 or 19, based on dental examinations and skeletal X-rays. How the question is resolved will play a significant role when it comes to sentencing.
His personal circumstances might matter, too. Last week Youssef M. told the court that he was tricked into joining the pirate gang.
“I was born the youngest of eight children,” in northeastern Somalia, he said, and lost his parents and half his family in accidents or acts of war — two sisters killed by a grenade, a brother run over by a bus. “When I was nine or 10 years old, my brother brought me to the harbor, where I started to work odd jobs. Most of the work was loading or unloading ships.”
‘Have to Be Watched’
At 13, Youssef M. said, he worked as a night watchman for a fishing boat. “I received a wage of less than one US dollar per night,” he said through his lawyer. “The situation in Somalia is such that almost anything that can be stolen, will be stolen. People live in great need, so fishing boats have to be watched.”
A year later, in 2007, he became a fisherman. The work was hard and the pay was scarce, he said. “Many times I found work for days or even weeks, but sometimes there was no work for days, and I went hungry. When I had work, I could sleep on the boat. Otherwise I slept on the street,” he said. “Overall the situation was very difficult.”
In March 2010 a strange man came to him in the harbor where he worked and asked if Youssef wanted to pilot a boat. The work involved running a wooden motorboat as a shuttle for people and goods along the shore. “I worked several days as a sort of taxi driver on the sea,” said Youssef, for the equivalent of two or three US dollars per day, which he considered good pay. By then he was already working in one of the skiffs that would attack the Taipan, he said. “Then the man asked if I was ready for a bigger job. It would pay a flat $500.”
He said no one went into detail about exactly what the job would entail. Strange men brought him out to a hijacked fishing dhow, where Youssef M. claims to have met the other alleged pirates in the courtroom for the first time. “It was only on board the dhow that I realized we were supposed to hijack a cargo ship,” he said. “No one mentioned in my presence that there was a possibility of getting arrested by an international naval coalition.”
“I did not think very hard about whether I should participate,” he went on. “Nevertheless it seemed as if everything had been planned ahead of time and I had no choice. However, I was never threatened by anyone.”
The statement read by his lawyer portrayed Youssef M. as a naïve follower who neither planned the attack nor fired a weapon. According to his statement — which is impossible to confirm — all he did was pilot the skiff.
“I want to say I’m very sorry for participating in this attack,” he told the court last Wednesday. “I could only see the dimensions of the crime in retrospect…. The testimony by Captain Eggers impressed me deeply. That is why I apologized to him in court.”
In December and January, the 69-year-old Taipan captain, Dierk Eggers, gave three days of testimony and described the hail of Kalashnikov fire that pierced the steel of the bridge “like butter” before he and two other crew members retreated to the safe room. The gunfire included one presumed round from a grenade launcher, he said, which didn’t explode but flew in through one window and out another.
A Point of Apologizing
Eggers came across as a kind and experienced seaman, and at the end of his testimony Youssef M. made a point of apologizing.
So far two other pirates have told their stories in court. The plea for dismissal into the youth-welfare system by Youssef M.’s lawyer is an indication of how the various defense teams intend to proceed. Even if some defendants are found guilty, it’s unclear whether Germany would ship them back to Somalia after a jail sentence. Somalia has lacked a formal government since 1991 and it is racked with civil war. Extreme poverty has motivated many on the Somali coast to turn to piracy.
A recent trial in the US of five Somalis who attacked a guided-missile frigate by mistake one night last April led to swift guilty verdicts last November. They face life sentences in jail. But they were tried in a military court, according to laws written over 200 years ago.
Western civilian courts are still trying to adjust to Somali piracy. In Germany the defendants face a maximum of 15 years in jail. But if the court points instead to expensive rehabilitation and, ultimately, to asylum, there will be little appetite here to try pirates at all. Indeed, Germany would prefer seeing the creation of a new international court designed specifically to prosecute pirates. Berlin has been advocating such a court ever since it launched a naval group to aid the European Union’s counter-piracy mission, called Atalanta, in 2008.
Guardian Angels
“It needs to be an international authority,” Germany’s then-Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said in November 2008. “No one wants a Guantanamo on the sea.”
The provisional solution at the time was to fund special piracy courts in neighboring African countries like Kenya, since Somalia lacks a functioning judiciary. At first the plan seemed to work — a Kenyan court funded by the United Nations and the EU has jailed dozens of Somali pirates. But rights groups have raised questions about prison conditions in Kenya, and one justice threw the whole project into question at the end of last year by ruling that Kenyan law cannot extend to international waters.
Meanwhile, high-seas crime continues. When Youssef M. apologized in court to Dierk Eggers, the captain said, “I accept the apology. In fact I’ve been ready to accept an apology for some time.”
Eggers — who says he bears no hate toward the pirates — added later that the formal nature of Youssef’s apology disappointed him. “Because he might have been killed too!” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “He was protected by the same guardian angel that seems to have watched over me…. I think he also could have apologized off the coast of Somalia.”

Somalia: Pirate Hostage's Brother – Let Me Speak to My Sister First
Pretoria — The brother of a South African woman hijacked by Somali pirates said on Monday that any ransom demand for his sister was "pointless" unless he could speak to her.
Dale van der Merwe said he had asked telephone callers demanding a USD10 million (R70m) ransom for the release of his sister Deborah Calitz for proof that she was alive.
"I said to them: 'If you really are who you say who you are, then let me speak to her.' They said no."
Calitz, her partner Bruno Pelizzari and skipper Peter Eldridge were sailing to South Africa from Dar es Salaam to spend Christmas with friends and family when they were confronted by Somalian pirates off the coast of Tanzania on October 26.
Eldridge was able to escape after refusing to leave the yacht, but the pirates forced Pelizzari and Calitz off the vessel.
Van der Merwe said he and Pelizzari's sister each received a call in December from people claiming to be Somalian pirates.
"We don't really know if they are who they say they are. We have had no proof that she is even alive. These are people who could have just got our details off the boat, which is in Somalia."
Van der Merwe said the South African government had made it clear that its policy was not to pay any ransom. He did not have the resources
"It's pointless asking me for any money if I can't even speak to my sister," he said.
International relations and co-operation spokesman Clayson Monyela confirmed that it was the government's policy not to pay ransoms and that it would render consular assistance.
He said the department could not say whether the calls were genuine as they were to family members.

SHIP TALK: A GLOSSARY OF SHIPPING AND MARITIME TERMS
JACKUP – A deck with legs that can be jacked up or down. During operations, the legs rest on the seabed. When the rig is moved, the legs are retracted, leaving the rig floating. A jack up has normally no propulsion machinery of its own.
LASH SHIPS – LASH stand for Lighter Aboard Ship. It is a specialized container ship carrying very large floating containers, or 'lighters'. The ship carries its own heavy-duty crane for loading and discharging the lighters over the stern. The lighters each have a capacity of about 400 tons and are stowed in the holds and on deck. While, the ship is at sea with one set of lighters, further sets can be made ready. Loading and discharge are rapid at about 15 minutes per lighter, no port or dock facilities are needed
INTERNATIONAL LOAD LINE CERTIFICATE: A certificate which gives details of a ship's freeboard and states that the ship has been surveyed and the appropriate load lines marked on her sides. The certificate is issued by a classification society or coastal authority such as a coast guard.
LIGHTER – General name for a broad, flat-bottomed boat used in transporting cargo between a vessel and the shore. The distinction between a lighter and a barge is more in the manner of use than in equipment. The term 'lighter' refers to a short haul, generally in connection with loading and unloading operations of vessels in harbour, while the term 'barge' is more often used when the cargo is being carried to its destination over a long distance.
FLEETING: The area at which barges, towboats and tugs are berthed, until when needed. The operation of building or dismantling barge tows.
DECKHAND – Seaman who works on the deck of a ship and remains in the wheelhouse attending to the orders of the duty officers during navigation and manoeuvring.
DECK LOG – Also called Captain's Log. It is a full nautical record of a ship's voyage, written up at the end of each watch by the deck officer on watch. The principal entries are: courses steered; distance run; compass variations, sea and weather conditions; ship's position, principal headlands passed; names of lookouts, and any unusual position, principal headlands passed; names of lookouts, and any unusual happenings such as fire, collision, and the like.
DECK OFFICER – As distinguished from engineer officer, refers to all officers who assist the master in navigating the vessel when at sea, and supervise the handling of cargo when in port.
CLERKS: When cargo is unloaded from a ship, a clerk checks the actual count of the goods (number of boxes, drums, bundles, pipes, etc.) versus the amount listed on the ship’s manifest. He will note shortages, overages or damage. This is used to make claims if needed.
CONSOLIDATOR: The person or firm that consolidates (combines) cargo from a number of shippers into a container that will deliver the goods to several buyers.
BERTH: (verb) To bring a ship to a berth. (noun) The wharf space at which a ship docks. A wharf may have two or three berths, depending on the length of incoming ships
COMMON CARRIER: Trucking, railroad or barge lines that are licensed to transport goods or people nationwide are called common carriers.

WEEKLY PIRACY REPORT

30.01.2011: 1640 UTC: Posn: 04:20N – 066:20E, around 375nm west of Male Island,(Off Somalia).
Eight pirates in a skiff armed with machine guns and RPG launched from a mother vessel, chased and fired upon a livestock carrier underway with intent to hijack. Master raised alarm, increased speed and crew directed searchlights towards the skiff. Pirates managed to get alongside the vessel. Due to evasive manoeuvring the pirates were unsuccessful in boarding the vessel. The pirates aborted the attempt and rejoined the mother vessel. The stbd lifeboat was damaged due to the RPG fire.

01.02.2011: 1636 UTC: Posn: 15:16.6N – 054:35.8E, around 105nm south of Salalah Oman, Gulf of Aden.
Pirates in two skiffs armed with machine guns chased and fired upon a tanker underway. Master raised alarm, activated SSAS alert and increased speed. The skiffs chased the vessel for some time and then backed off.

01.02.2011: 1157 UTC: Posn: 06:44N – 069:24E, around 230nm SW of Minicoy Island, India (Off Somalia).
Pirates armed with guns in two skiffs chased and fired upon a bulk carrier underway with intent to hijack. Master raised alarm, sent distress message, increased speed and took evasive manoeuvres. The pirates keep on firing and chased the ship and finally aborted the attempted boarding. No injuries to crew.

01.02.2011: 0735 UTC: Posn: 11:13N – 056:16E, around 123nm SE of Socotra Island, (Off Somalia).
Pirates in a dhow and a skiff were spotted by a tanker underway. Master raised alarm, increased speed and fired warning flares. The skiff chased the tanker with a speed of 19knots. At a distance of 0.7 nm the onboard security team fired warning shots. The skiff aborted the chase and rejoined the mother vessel which was doing around 9 knots.

INCREDIBLE: Indian Navy Ship Sinks After Colliding With German Container Ship
The Indian Navy ship INS VINDHYAGIRI (F42) caught fire and has sunk in Mumbai harbour after colliding with a German container ship. The naval ship, a former Leander class frigate now referred to in India as a Nilgiri class, was returning to port after celebrating India’s ‘Day at Sea’ with families of military personnel on board. There were no reports of injuries and everyone was safely evacuated from the ship.
According to initial reports, the German container ship NORDLAKE (22,450-dwt, built 2004) took a sharp turn to avoid another freighter but collided with the frigate instead. The Nordlake suffered only minor damage.
Ironically, the Indian Navy Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Nirmal Verma had earlier in the day commented to visitors and other navy personnel about the use of the latest technology for preventing ship collisions at busy harbours.
Afterwards the Indian Navy made the following statement: “The collision led to fire and flooding onboard INS Vindhyagiri. INS Vindhyagiri was thereafter safely berthed alongside in the Naval harbour. Ammunition on board was cleared and all efforts were made to contain the fire and flooding onboard. Concurrently, necessary measures have also been taken to prevent any spillage of oil from the ship. Other naval operations and commercial operations in Mumbai port have not been affected. No casualties have been reported.” The last time an Indian warship sank in peacetime was in 2006, involving the Tarantul-class corvette INS Prahar.

Currently, More Than 800 Seafarers Held Hostage In Somalia!
The number of sea-jacked vessels in 2010 clearly exceeded the pirates’ catch of 2009 – an all time record, despite the fact that over 25 nations regularly patrol these waters.
For 2010 the recorded account around the Horn of Africa stands at 243 incidences with 202 direct attacks by Somali sea-shifta resulting in 74 sea-jackings. So far the impact of the navies has only caused the spreading of Somalia-based piracy all over the Indian Ocean. That only one in three attacks is successful is mainly due to the implementation of Best Management Practices employed by the vessels and not due to naval presence.
While billions are spend for the navies, the general militarization and mercenaries, still no help is coming forward to pacify and develop the coastal areas of Somalia.
……And Mystery of Women Hostages Explained!
There are persistent reports from the ground that 3 women, believed to be from Tanzania (1) and the Comores (2), are held hostage at the Somali coast off Hobyo in connection with one of the most recent piracy cases.
It is now believed that the information concerning a crew of 3 or 2 men and 3 women held apart from the crew of MT YORK, but at least part time on that and sometimes on other vessels, is correct.
So far neither the navies nor the yachting community had reported any missing sailing yacht or of a motor-yacht or cruiser from where these people could have come.
Some reports speculated that there also might be a link with Spanish co-owned, Mozambican-flagged fishing vessel FV VEGA 5, which is held now near Harardheere at the Somali coast close to much earlier sea-jacked MV RAK AFRICANA – another forgotten and abandoned case. But that seems rather unlikely now, since we could establish the nationalities of the three ladies.
It thereby becomes obvious that they must be part of the hostages from MV ALY ZOULFECAR the Comorian-flagged vessel seized on November 3, 2010 and which originally had nine crew members and 20 passengers on board. Allegedly, there was back then already one casualty among these hostages.
If these women are now abused as special human shield on piracy missions carried out with earlier sea-jacked merchant vessels like the MT YORK, which just returned from a piracy trip far down to the Mozambican waters, has still to be established.
A proof-of-live report concerning these three women was received today from Hobyo.

Zanzibar ship sinks near Seychelles
The combined passenger and cargo ship RAS KIGOMASHA (3,999-gt, built 1974, IMO 7355234) sank in heavy seas near the Seychelles on 28 January 2011, reports Maritime Bulletin (Voytenko Mikhail). The crew of 13, all Pakistanis, were saved.
The ship was sailing from Zanzibar to Dubai for maintenance and refitting. Although still flying the flag of Tanzania the ship is reported to have been recently sold by the Zanzibar Shipping Corp, a government-owned company. Capable of carrying 750 passengers and 1,500 tonnes of cargo, Ras Kigomasha acted as a ferry between the Tanzanian ports and carrying the name MAPINDUZI. – source Maritime Bureau

Maritime Security Alert in Egypt

A maritime security alert has been issued for Egypt amid ongoing unrest in urban areas around the country.

Transits through the Suez Canal are proceeding as normal with no delays reported or schedule alterations required. However, crew embarkations and disembarkations are not currently recommended.

Vessel operators looking to change crews are advised to do so in other ports in the region, such as Aqabah (Jordan), Jiddah (Saudi Arabia) or Hudaydah (Yemen) for example.

The Egyptian military has bolstered its presence around the critical waterway and in the event of further unrest it will remain a major priority for army protection. The Canal is very likely to be protected, even in the event of a significant change in regime.

As such, political risks facing vessels transiting the waterway are not considered to be high, although in the event of a major escalation in violence shipping support staff based on the land may be forced to leave their posts, potentially leading to a disruption in communications, co-ordination and assistance. This outcome is not currently considered likely, but vessel operators are advised to monitor the situation closely nonetheless. Be prepared to alter travel plans at short notice.