Carriers with Indian flags will now be allowed to deploy armed guards against pirates, the Shipping Ministry has decreed, following repeated appeals by the Indian National Shipowners' Association.
The Ministry has taken the decision after noting that about 35 per cent of merchant ships transiting through pirate-infested waters deploy armed security guards and that the pirates generally do not attack ships with guards on board.
Private armed guards on ships are increasingly seen as an effective deterrent to pirates and as a complement to overstretched navies, many of which face budget cuts. (The International Chamber of Shipping has described the recent military responses to piracy as “sticking plaster on a gaping wound”.) Mr Peter Cook, the founding member of the Security Association for the Maritime Industry, an industry group with 58 members, has been quoted as saying that private firms would play an increasing role as navies face spending reviews, citing prospects of a 30 per cent decline in the size of Western navies in the next 20 years.
Private navy
Some shipping companies have already responded by arming guards on board their vessels. There are even plans mooted by shippers to create a private navy to protect shipping convoys and engage the pirates. Ship insurers, too, are backing the use of private armed guards on merchant vessels at sea as pirate attacks and the resulting costs in terms of payouts are set to soar.
The large-scale deployment of armed guards on board merchant vessels is being considered amid growing concern that piracy, already spinning out of control, may escalate with the end of the monsoon. The rains and rough seas in the past few monthshad made it harder for pirates to mount attacks from their small skiffs. Attacks by Somali pirates could rise to 250 in 2011 from about 200 in each of the two previous years, it is feared.
There are also other causes for concern. Ship-owners and insurers until recently were reluctant to allow armed private contractors on board. They hesitated partly due to legal liabilities and risks, including the problem of bringing weapons into some territorial waters, and due to fear of escalating violence.
The use of private security would likely lead pirates to change tactics and be more violent. Seamen have been murdered and there are disturbing reports that those taken as hostage have been subject to torture reminiscent of an age when ships with sails had captains who were a law unto themselves. Contracting out the protection of vessels to mercenaries takes shipping companies into legally and morally complex territory that should rather be patrolled by states. Private guards should comply with the legislation of the flag state, it is argued.
Next, the ransom amounts demanded are increasing. Recently a record $7-million ransom was paid for releasing the 1,743-TEU MSC Panama with 23 crew on board. The vessel was seized last December. According to one estimate, pirates' profits have already outstripped last year's $80 million, touching some $120 million in the year to September.
New areas
Finally, pirates are shifting attention from the Gulf of Aden to the vast areas of the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. pirates have proved increasingly mobile and flexible in their tactics. Moreover, they are developing capabilities at even greater distances. Their mother ships and onboard skiffs are now within range of the Strait of Hormuz, the choke-point for the vital supply of oil from the Gulf, 1,000 miles from the Somali coast. The Indian Ocean resembles “the Wild West”, complain ship-owners. More than 20,000 ships are estimated to transit every year through the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. What can be done in such a situation? The ship-owners' associations have appealed to the UN to create an armed military force to be deployed on vessels. As the problem escalates, so should the measures to address it. There is also a demand for restricting the growth of unregulated private-security contractors, many of whom have little experience and expertise to combat a problem as serious as maritime piracy.
But it is also realised that ultimately the problem of Somali piracy can be solved only on land. That will take time. In the absence of a functioning Somali state, a better co-ordinated international naval force and patrolling larger stretches of water are becoming necessary.
So, too, is a better system to jail pirates, many of whom have been disarmed and released at sea only to attack again. Meanwhile, sources confirm famine-like condition in that part of the world. Which means more people might be drawn into piracy.