By Henning Gloystein and Jonathan Saul
Friday, January 28, 2011
LONDON (Reuters) - German shipping companies and the German government are in talks to deploy military or federal police personnel on merchant shipping at key points to protect them against Somali pirates, a group involved said on Friday.
Somali pirates are increasingly using hijacked merchant vessels with hostage crews as giant motherships to attack shipping deeper into the Indian Ocean.
"There are discussions to enable armed soldiers or federal policemen to come on board when an endangered vessel is entering a high-risk area," Niels Stolberg, president and chief executive of Beluga Group, said in an emailed interview.
"Some chartered vessels could function as bases of operations positioned near the exit of the Suez Canal, near Sri Lanka and near the Seychelles," Stolberg told Reuters.
"The safety personnel would be picked up from those hubs (by passing ships) and disembark after the transit at the next operational base."
The shipping industry warned this week that oil cargoes were at risk from better equipped seaborne gangs.
Bremen-based Beluga Group is a shipping company that specialises in transporting large and heavy objects.
A German defence ministry spokesman said options had been discussed at a meeting with private companies on Jan. 24, but "no concrete measures have been decided" beyond the European Union's anti-piracy mission which aims to protect vessels of the World Food Programme.
ECONOMY MINISTRY DECISION
The final decision on whether to protect German commercial vessels with military personnel lies with the economy ministry, the spokesman said.
"The issue is very complicated constitutionally and logistically," an economy ministry spokesman said.
A spokesman for the interior ministry, which is responsible for policing, confirmed that the talks had taken place and that no decision had been taken.
Carrying German military or police personnel on German ships would also be an incentive for ships to operate under a German flag, rather than use a flag of convenience to reduce operating costs and avoid German regulations, Stolberg said.
Somali pirates seized the Beluga Nomination, one of Beluga's vessels, along with 12 crew members this month, 800 miles off the Seychelles.
To prevent more vessels being hijacked, Stolberg said the company's ships had been ordered to avoid the Suez Canal and to re-route around the Cape of Good Hope, at an additional cost of $200,000 per vessel per trip.
Beluga said it had tried to protect its ships by using razor wire, a slippery water-chemical solution, and locked 'panic rooms' for crews known as citadels. Stolberg said the measures were costing the company around 10 million euros ($13.7 million) per year.
"However, as the case of MV Beluga Nomination proved, the citadel is not safe any longer, since the pirates have upgraded their equipment (and) they were able to weld on the main deck and entered the citadel through the room's ceiling."
Stolberg said piracy had risen to such levels that urgent political action was needed. "We require a swift decision ... since this is an acute practical question of saving the lives of seafarers."
Stolberg said the group wanted to avoid taking on private military personnel. "We are not interested in taking mercenaries on board, which could increase the aggression of the attacking pirates and provoke bloodshed." (Editing by Tim Pearce).
Source: Reuters