Monday, February 21, 2011
NATION MV Golden Wave, the Korean fishing vessel which was hijacked by Somali pirates early October last year docked at the Mbaraki Wharf after she arrived with 39 Kenyan fishermen, two Koreans and two Chinese. |
The use of hijacked vessels as mother ships — where a ship is used to launch attacks on other ships — has complicated the situation for navies operating in the Indian Ocean.
News that a fishing vessel Golden Wave was released after being used to hijack five other vessels came as a shock to the industry, and although experts say that the tactic has been used in the past, it seems to be gaining ground among the pirates.
Golden Wave was released without paying ransom for running the errands, although pirates had at first asked for Sh50 million to secure release of the vessel.
According to a maritime source privy to police investigations over the vessel’s hijack just 10 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast on October 9 last year, a probe is going on in some foreign countries to establish the exact position, date and time of the vessel’s hijack.
Not adding up
“Something is not adding up in regard to this information and the detectives will also be coming to the country to carry out investigations,” said the source, who cannot be named without compromising his position.
Maritime experts say the threat navies deployed by the international community pose to pirates in a spirited effort to police the Somali waters and Gulf of Aden, has re-ignited the sea gangs’ invention of new tactics.
In an earlier interview, the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) assistant harbour master Capt Adnan Banafa said pirates use fishing trawlers hijacked from the sea shore as staging posts for further attacks in the ocean. When in the high seas, one can not easily suspect the vessels.
Pirates also operate small skiffs with powerful engines that can be pulled up to the beach. The smaller boats are fast but lack the range necessary to mount successful attacks. The use of fishing vessels increases the range.
Any ship that is over 300 tonnes, according to the maritime regulations is required to have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which helps the vessel to detect and identify any ship in the deep seas and its characteristics.
When the hijackers use the mother ship, this gadget helps them to find their target, Banafa said. It also helps them locate the naval ships patrolling the waters, making it difficult for the soldiers to stop attacks on ships.
To ensure that commercial ships are safe from further attacks, the standard warning requiring them to stay at least 50 nautical miles off the coastline has now been increased to at least 200 nautical miles.
It is generally thought, according to a think tank group — Chatham House of UK — that it takes 15 minutes from the time the pirates sight a ship to the time they hijack it. This explains why the ships are hijacked even with the international patrol in the affected areas.
And once the pirates are on board, there is little that can be done to rescue the ship due to the dangers this may pose and also the rules of engagement for the naval ships.
Latest statistics by the Kuala Lumpur based International Maritime Bureau which is operated by the International Chamber of Commerce say the pirates have lately expanded their range of attacks.
Last year, pirates used fishing vessels to reach as far as the southern Red Sea, where they hijacked a chemical tanker in July 2010, the first such hijacking recorded in the area, IMB said, adding that the range of attacks was now beyond 1,000 nautical miles.
Pirates have also acquired sophisticated weapons to carry out attacks. Col Victor Gamor, the military advisor at the United Nations Political Office of Somali (UNOPS) told a maritime security and safety workshop in Mombasa recently that there are Somalis in the Diaspora who could be funding the activity.
With ransoms ranging from $500,000 to $2 million, the pirates are making a huge fortune. Some of the money goes to fast cars, new houses and lavish wedding parties, according to Gamor, but a significant portion also went into the acquisition of sophisticated equipment.
It is this foreign connection that facilitates the acquisition of sophisticated equipment and other infrastructure to enable the pirates carry out their attacks, Gamor said.
“The sophistication of the operation, for example the selected targeting of ships carrying lucrative cargo gives credence to the allegation that intelligence is passed on to the pirates from external sources, “ Gamor said.
Pirates, he said, now use GPS systems and satellite phones. It is also believed that they are plugged into international networks that feed information from the ports in the Gulf, Europe, Asia and back to Somali.
The pirates have graduated from being simple fishermen with small boats and ordinary weapons into high-tech operators armed with modern weapons travelling in expensive speedboats, said Gamor.
More lucrative
As the crime has become more and more lucrative, it has attracted a widening network of players who are stationed in foreign countries, he added.
The campaign to curb the involvement of foreign actors in fuelling piracy in Somali is complicated by the absence of an effective central authority in Somalia.
Although the country has a transitional government in place, it does not have effective control over the entire national territory.
Somaliland, in the North West asserts its independence while Puntland, in the north east, exercises significant autonomy. While Somaliland, according to Gamor, appears in good measure to control piracy, the same cannot be said of Puntland.
In central and south Somalia, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) controls a limited stretch of territory around Mogadishu, the capital. The rest of the territory is under the control of the insurgent forces or is highly contested, with the territory constantly changing hands between the government and its allied forces on the one hand and hard line groups on the other.
Mr Mwangura says the sophistication and capacity to carry out attacks in a wide range has exposed Kenya to pirate attacks.
Towards the end of last year, pirates wrecked havoc on the east African coast, hijacking at least three vessels off Kenya, Tanzania and Seychelles territorial waters.
Among the vessels pirates are holding is Mv Al Zoulfecar which was hijacked off Tanzanian coast while on her way to Dar-es-salaam from Comoros with 29 people on board, including a Mombasa based businesswoman.
While Golden Wave was hijacked off the Kenyan coast, over 15 other vessels have been attacked on the East African waters in the past five months.
“We want an explanation from the government why the Korean vessel was fishing in the Kenyan waters illegally before it was hijacked,” he said.
Source: Daily Nation