Incidents of piracy
in the Strait of Malacca and South China Sea areas have fallen this year, but
the shipping industry still needs to be vigilant, according to the director of
the International Maritime Bureau.
Eric Ellen said
more than 200 attacks were recorded in the Strait of Malacca in 1991, but this
year the number is less than 100.He was speaking here at a seminar organized by
the International Association of Dry Cargo Shipowners (Intercargo) on Monday.
source: google
But at the same
meeting a ship's captain said just a few weeks ago two Tsakos tankers had been
attacked by pirates in the area.
A spokeswoman for
Tsakos Shipping (London) said the 83,680-deadweight-ton Yaya and the 28,588-deadweight-ton
Maria T were boarded by pirates off the Indonesian coast.
source: google
The crews were tied
up and valuables taken. The company is in the process of reporting the
incidents to the Baltic and International Maritime Council and has written to
the Indonesian Embassy in London.
Mr. Ellen said the
two attacks could indicate a worrying new trend in the area.
His advice to all
vessel owners and operators is to report all incidents to the IMB's piracy
reporting center in Kuala Lumpur, not to carry firearms, and to take evasive
action where possible.
He told against
fortifying a ship too heavily against attacks as this could render it unsafe
for the crew.
Mr. Ellen said he
believes the industry must make a stand against any attacks. He said that after
a report last year publicly criticized the Chinese for attacks in the South
China Seas area, the number of incidents has dramatically declined during the
last nine months.
He said the same
was true after the Indonesian government was called upon to investigate the
incident on the freighter Baltimar Zephyr, in which a British master and
Filipino chief officer were killed.
The Indonesian
authorities were criticized by Britain for not providing a full report on the
attack and their actions following it.
Numbers of attacks
in the area have since declined.
The problem of
"phantom ships," whereby a vessel with false identification picks up
a legitimate cargo and disappears with it, was still prevalent, Mr. Ellen said.
He said his bureau
is investigating four cargoes that have vanished, possibly into China.
He believes that 95
percent of these fraud cases could be prevented if proper checks were carried
out on cargoes, according to written procedures.
Mr. Ellen is also
critical of the reluctance of police, port and flag authorities to take
responsibility for vessels while they are at sea.
He cites the case
of the Erria Inge, which was bought by a new owner in 1993 who, on deciding to
scrap the vessel, found 10 dead bodies in the vessel's refrigeration compartment.
It was found that
the ship was not registered with any flag state, and even Interpol was not
interested in taking on the case.
By Motoma LW
By Motoma LW
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