By MANDEEP SINGH,
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
PIRATES operating off the coast of Somalia must be stopped before they become a threat to the Gulf, a top US official declared yesterday.
"War-ravaged Somalia has always been a hotbed for piracy but, of late, the pirates are getting bolder," he told delegates at the Maritime Security and Coastal Surveillance Conference.
"They are targeting bigger vessels and demanding larger ransoms," he said.
"Soon, being emboldened, they will start looking for other avenues and that is when there would be a real problem."
The three-day event, organised by the US-based International Quality and Productivity Centre, concludes at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel, Residence and Spa today.
Vice Admiral Gortney said the US and other navies in the region were doing a commendable job in tackling piracy.
"Patrolling the seas in other areas is also not to be forgotten."
He said shipments of arms and ammunition to Palestinians and drugs to the Al Qaeda and elements in Pakistan was another area of concern.
"In the process, if we can tackle the Somali pirates and beat them at their own game, we would have done a great job."
He said the fact the Gulf countries were rich in natural resources with scores of oil refineries and desalination plants put them more at risk of attack.
"The navies of the area have to be on their guard all the time to prevent these installations from being a target of terrorist strikes."
Vice Admiral Gortney, who commands a multi-national anti-piracy task force authorised by the UN Security Council, said the Combined Task Force, or CTF 151, had encountered more than 250 pirates in the last few months.
He revealed, of these, 121 had been disarmed and released, 117 disarmed and referred to the local authorities for prosecution and nine were still being held pending a final decision on what to do with them.
Source: Gulf Daily News, March 25, 2009