Marine Log - May 2008 - (Page 4)

Nick Blenkey Senior Editorial Consultant Second Thoughts The answer to the Somali pirates? iracy off Somalia has, quite simply, gotten out of hand. Until now about the only help administrations have given ships is to advise them to stay at least 200 miles away from the Somali coast. The pirates’ answer to that has been to simply range further out and to venture into the Gulf of Aden. On April 4, pirates hijacked a French cruise yacht, Le Ponant, owned by a subsidiary of CMACGM and held it for ransom. Just a few weeks earlier, on March 18, Somali hijackers had released the Svitzer tug Svitzer Korsakov, held since February 1. Svitzer was reported to have paid a hefty ransom, widely quoted as $700,000 and this could well have encouraged the Le Ponant hijackers. Svitzer declined to comment and asked that details of its negotiations with the hijackers not be put in the public domain. Since the pirates knew full well how much they got, Svitzer’s coyness now seems pretty pointless. Be that as it may, when the French Government got word of the seizure of Le Ponant it acted decisively. All the means at France's disposal in the region were immediately mobilized and an interministerial crisis team was set up, under an antipiracy action plan that provided for the possible use of French Naval Commandos and a special inter- P vention unit of the Gendarmerie Nationale. As part of the response, the French Navy corvette Commandant Bouan was rerouted to go to the assistance of Le Ponant. A Canadian helicopter from HMCS Charlottetown also took part in the response. Almost from the outset, Le Ponant was kept under constant surveillance and France started to work on what turned out to be a twopronged solution. One part of that was to negotiate with the pirates, arrange to pay a ransom, reportedly $2 million, and secure the release of Le Ponant’s crew (there were no passengers on board). The other part of the plan was to make sure that the pirates did not get away with it. On April 11, news came that the hostages had indeed been released. Later that day came news that six of the pirates had been captured and were detained on board a French ship. After getting their hands on the ransom, the pirates returned to shore. They were kept under surveillance from a French helicopter. Some of them dispersed but the others got into a 4x4. Four helicopters, one of them carrying a sniper, pursued the vehicle. The sniper halted it by firing into the engine. Two helicopters landed and took the six pirates into custody. A French military spokesman said that, as well as the pirates, the raid netted “some interesting bags,” believed to be part—but not all—of the ransom. Subsequently, six Somalis—now described as suspects—made their first appearance in French court and will likely be charged with a broad range of offenses. Okay, the French action did not result in the capture of all the pirates, nor did it recover all the ransom. For that matter, it didn’t even bring a lull in piracy incidents. Since the Le Ponant incident, a Spanish tuna boat has been hijacked and a Japanese-owned tanker escaped after coming under an attack from a small boat. It carried an individual armed with a grenade launcher who put a small hole in the tanker that caused the release of “several kiloliters” of oil into the Gulf of Aden. Even so, France has shown that the Somali pirates cannot simply be allowed to ply their trade unchallenged. And the French attitude is refreshingly different from that of Britain’s Foreign Office. It has advised the Royal Navy against detaining pirates aboard its ships as they could then claim asylum in Britain. Meantime, France is asking the U.N. Security Council to allow navies to establish antipiracy patrols that would have the right to pursue pirates into territorial waters if need be. IMO has endorsed this request. We’ve been running a poll on this on www.marinelog.com. Most respondents support the French request. Quite a few think even tougher measures are called for. nblenkey@sbpub.com 4 MARINE LOG MAY 2008 www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com http://www.robsonforensic.com http://www.robsonforensic.com http://www.marinelog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - May 2008

Marine Log - May 2008 Contents Editorial Second Thoughts Update Inside Washington Europe Plots Its Tech Strategy SDNV Container Ship Update Diesels Can Burn Anything: Even Clean Fuel Boost for Small Shipyards Gateway to the Caribbean Room to Grow Show Review Tech News Newsmakers Contracts Events Website Directory ML Buyer's Guide ML Marketplace Maritime Salvage Letters

Marine Log - May 2008

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