Piracy in Somalia waters: Time for Indian lead initiative

by R.S. Vasan

(November 23, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent success of the Indian Naval Ship Tabar in the sinking of the mother vessel of the pirates on 19th November, raises many issues that require the attention of the international community.

While tracing the responses of the maritime community and the nations around the world, it is clear that at best it has been reactive, sporadic and with out any great degree of coordination. If one compares this with the speed with which the IMO acted to amend the provisions of the Safety of Lives at Sea (SOLAS) it is evident that the same sense of urgency has not been displayed in the case of the piracy attacks. Let us look at the fact sheets.

This year alone there have been a total of 92 attempts of piracy attacks not just in the treacherous Somalian waters but even on the high seas at considerable distance from the African coast. The pirates have been emboldened with each successful attack and payment of ransom allowing them to expand the sphere of their operation.

The response of the nations that dispatched their naval vessels has largely been to protect their own vessels which are operating in the area. However while in the area any other vessel in danger of being attacked by the pirates has also been saved by timely intervention of the British, French and Indian Naval units.

Unlike in the case of the Combined Task Force 150 which is operating at the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz, there is no coordinated effort to harness the potential of the multinational units for a joint operation. In the case of CTF 150, the joint forces are led in rotation by the members of the task force. It is obvious that the protection of the energy nodes and the energy radials emanating from the Straits of Hormuz are much more important to the US.

In the case of Somalia, even the resolution of the UN Security Council a couple of years ago left it mostly to the initiatives of the nations involved to protect the ships from attacks.

It also posed legal challenges as it was expected that the permission from the Somalian Government would be sought for acting against the pirates who would seek shelter in the coastal waters. There were many difficulties in this. Firstly there is no functioning government in Somalia. Secondly, problems arise when the ship owners are quite different from the country of registration and the ship imanned by a multinational crew. Thirdly, a new dimension has been added when the pirates stray out of their territorial waters and move into the high seas with mother ships in pursuit of their prey.

In the initial years of increase in the piracy attacks in the Malacca Straits, the IMO lost no time in establishing a Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) at Kuala Lumpur which built up statistics and warned sea farers about the dangers of piracy in many parts of the world but with specific focus on the Malacca Straits. In the case of Malacca Straits, the joint proactive action by the littorals including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand came about due to the pressure applied by the Lloyds Joint War Committee (JWC) which declared the Malacca Straits as war prone area raising the insurance costs. This compelled united action by these affected countries who decided to act together and bring down the incidents of Piracy. In addition to the initiative such as the Eyes in the Sky (EiS) and coordinated patrols, the nations actively pursued allowing hot pursuit in each other’s territorial waters. Based on this sustained action, the acts of piracy did come down and an all time low in the last three years. With this having been accomplished, the concerned nations were able to remove the branding by the JWC.

It appears that the same level of response is still awaited from the IMO and the rest of the world in the case of Somalia. There are obviously many reasons for such lack of response including the geographic location. It would be worthwhile to look at the main reason for such inadequate response from the maritime community. This stems from a fact that the lives of the sea farers are insured against hostile acts at sea including piracy. Unfortunately, there is only a commercial angle to this aspect. Those involved in the loop included the ship owners whose job it was to pay the premiums, the insurers whose job it was to ensure that they did not lose too much money and of course the Pirates who knew this game. There are allegations that some of the insurers are directly engaged in negotiations with the pirates to ensure that the deal benefited all those involved.

International response

The response to the Indian Navy action has been positive from many parts of the world. The New York Times quoted Peter Hinchliffe, the marine director of the International Chamber of Shipping in London, saying in a telephone interview that the Indian Navy’s action “is going to start to bring the message home” to pirates “that the international community really is ranged against them.”. US Admiral M. Mullen apparently expressed frustration ("I am stunned!") and the American press is asking why the US Navy cannot go after the pirates. The daily mail soon after the action brought in the concerns about the possible intervention by the human rights activists who may not allow a free hand to the Navies. One of the responses said “The Indian Navy appears to be the only one with any idea as to what to do. Any action in the same manner from an EU country would be accompanied by a human rights lawyer!

Another view from US brought in the geo strategic dimensions by writing that “There is hope after all- India has the regional creditability to make such a stand and it should be something they get used to. They are a terrific counter-weight to the despotic regimes in the region and there involvement is vital to future stability and will be important to the West as China rises and the Putin tries to recreate the good old days (for his cronies) under the Soviets.

As if spurred by the action by the Navy, there was an announcement about the intention of the EU to send a fleet. Foreign secretary David Miliband announced that Britain will lead a European operation against piracy in the Gulf of Aden next month." Others are joining the scene and have made their intentions very clear about not letting the scourge of piracy haunt the Somali waters and the high seas through which vital cargo and crude pass on exit from the Gulf of Aden.

In a desperate announcement, the world’s largest shipping company Maersk chose to stop plying the risk prone areas. It is evident that the demand of 25 mUS Dollars for the release of the ship and the crew of the super tanker Sirus Star has unnerved the shipping community. The demand for release of MV Faina which is also carrying military hardware has been put at 30 million US dollars. The only diversion available for companies in that case would be via the Cape of Good Hope which would entail additional 15 days passage and is cost prohibitive. Maersk have indicated that they would indeed route their tankers numbering over 50 via this route despite the cost and time factor.

The Arab leaders have also met in Egypt to discuss the crisis and their strategy. The French had already dispatched their warship to the area just as the British had done previously. Sailors from the Britain Ship HMS Cumberland were also involved in an engagement that resulted in the death of two pirates and capture of other pirates.

Coincidentally the joint exercise Indra 2009 between Russia and India is scheduled next year and the Russian units lead by Varyag would be sailing out with the Indian Ocean as its destination. There can be hardly any doubts that the two navies would use the opportunity to jointly review the operating procedures against piracy in the areas of interest.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations on Wednesday expressed concern at new acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia, urging coordinated international efforts to fight the scourge. According to his spokes person, the Secretary General of UN expressed his concern at new acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia in recent days and reiterated his condemnation of all acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea wherever they occur. The statement said that the Chief Ban "strongly supports efforts by member states to address this scourge and is working closely with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, the IMO (International Maritime Organization), NATO, the EU, and other member states to ensure a coordinated international effort to fight piracy,"

The UN chief welcomed the decision of the European Union to authorize the deployment of a maritime force off the coast of Somalia, and the efforts of individual member states to send vessels to the waters. If the sentiments of the UN Security General are translated in to concrete resolutions empowering the marine forces to have greater autonomy of action in designated coastal areas such as Somalia, it would send the right signals to the pirates.

Role of the Indian Navy. The people of the nation were indeed sensitized by Mrs. Seema Goyal wife of Captain Goyal, Master of MV Stolt Valor which was hijacked by the pirates and released after 62 days of captivity. She was highly critical of the role of the Government and accused the Government of India of doing precious little to save the lives. The initial refusal of the Navy’s request (to deploy its assets) by the Government showed the decision making hierarchy of a growing maritime power in poor light. While not directly related to this paper, it does raise serious questions on the ability of the Ministry of Defence and the Government who failed to understand the significance of the Navy’s timely proposal. The Navy’s stand has been vindicated by the actions of INS Tabar which is on patrol since 23rd of last month. In addition to saving two ships from being hijacked, the ship was able to sink the mother ship as widely reported by the media. The Indian Navy has made its intention clear that these efforts would be a sustained one by dispatching another indigenous built Delhi class guided missile destroyer to relieve Tabar who has been in the area since last month. The sustained operations at such distances from mainland would add to the challenges of the ship and its crew though they are designed with long sea legs.

In its very first efforts to be guided by a maritime doctrine, the oceanic areas of influence of the Indian Navy have been identified as from the East coast of Africa to the West coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The Indian Navy has the reach and ability to be a reckonable force in these areas. This fact needs to be understood by the policy makers who have shown little understanding of marine matters and are hesitant to be assertive even when the correct advises are given by the professional services. It is very clearly a case of a nation having the required capabilities but sadly lacking in intentions.

It would be most appropriate if the Indian Navy took the lead initiative to create multinational Anti Piracy Force (APF) off the African coast. The leadership of this force could be in rotation as in the case of the Combined Task Force 150. The Indian Navy has already taken a lead in bringing together many nations together during the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium in February this year. The Navy by dialogue with the willing nations would be in a position to work out the Joint operating procedures, Command Control aspects, and Rules of Engagement including hot pursuit, legal issues, and such like. It is high time for such collective, collaborative, concerted and assertive initiative to be launched by India. Such a response from the maritime nations who are already in the area would ensure that the very sanctity of the freedom of the high seas is not violated on one hand and the confidence of the sea farers is restored on the other.

(The author is presently the Head, Strategy and Security Studies at the Center for Asia Studies at Chennai and can be contacted at rsvasan2010@gmail.com) - Sri Lanka Guardian