The maritime shipping sector is closely watching the incidents of piracy at sea in Southeast Asia, particularly the Malacca Strait, the world’s busiest shipping lane between East and West. Indeed, there has been a paradigm shift in sea piracy from the Horn of Africa to the Malacca Straits, causing “great concern” to the shipping lines, insurance companies and others associated with sea trade.
Yogendra Kumar, a former Indian ambassador posted to the Philippines with intimate knowledge of the Malacca Strait, who has retired from the Indian foreign service and is a maritime security expert, said in a recent interview with Asia Cargo News in New York that while sea piracy around the Horn of Africa has declined thanks to the concerted international effort to combat sea piracy by stationing armed naval vessels to thwart pirates, incidents of sea piracy in the Malacca Strait had dramatically increased.
“Cargo vessels fetch good ransom money,” said Kumar who has just released his book The Diplomatic Dimensions of Maritime Challenges for India in the 21st Century. It is not just the vessels but also the cargo and personnel on board that become pawns in the hands of the captors.
Kumar’s views resonate with the views of other institutions, including Oceans Beyond Piracy, a Colorado-based organization which annually assesses the cost of maritime piracy to the international community; OBP says that incidents of piracy attacks in 2014 in the western Indian Ocean had considerably declined because of higher surveillance, strong naval presence in the waters of the region, private armed guards on board the ships, etc.
There are also differences discerned in sea piracy in Africa and Southeast Asia. According to Singapore-based ReCAAP (Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia) Information-Sharing Centre and the International Maritime Bureau Piracy Reporting Centre, 3,654 seafarers were subjected to attacks in Southeast Asia in 2014, with 800 seafarers facing violence or the threat of violence; 51% of such attacks involved the use of weapons. Physical abuse of seafarers was reported in 28% of the incidents. While the kidnapping-for-ransom model was absent in Southeast Asia – in sharp contrast to the money demanded for release of seafarers kidnapped in the waters in and around Somalia – pirates often showed a callous disregard for seafarers in Southeast Asia: 64% of the attacks took place near the Malacca Strait, with a 93% rate of pirates successfully boarding victim vessels.
The Malacca Strait is an important sea trade choke point with heavy cargo vessel traffic flows; more than 4,000 ships can be seen in the Malacca and Singapore Straits at any given time.
OBP’s annual report says that Southeast Asia recorded the highest rate of successful pirate attacks of the three regions OBP assessed in its 2014 report, the other two regions being the western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Guinea off Africa’s west coast.
At a seminar held recently at the International Peace Institute in New York, participants generally felt that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would need to take urgent, unified action against transnational threats.
Because maritime security issues affect only some – and not all – ASEAN member states, the organization has yet to provide an effective response to the increased threat of piracy.
Some quarters draw a subtle difference between piracy and sea robbery. The Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), for instance, has emphasized this point because, it points out, sovereign states respond differently to each incident.
The SSA commissioned a study that showed that a majority of the incidents in Southeast Asia – mostly against oil tankers – in the first quarter of 2015 should be classified as sea robbery, arguing that unlike piracy, which refers to attacks in international waters, sea robbery happens in territorial waters and thus falls under the littoral states’ jurisdiction.
“The distinction determines whether a merchant vessel can seek protection from the navy [or] coastguard of the littoral state or from the navy [or] coastguard of the vessel’s flag of registry,” the SSA said.
Incidentally, pirate attacks in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysian waters, peaked in 2014 compared to the last five years, according to ReCAAP.
Deepak Shetty, an Indian expert on mercantile shipping who is the director general of shipping and an additional secretary in India’s Ministry of Shipping, told Asia Cargo News in an interview in New York that Somalia was the epicentre of sea piracy until three years ago. “Somalia no longer dominates piracy which is migrating to other regions,” he said.
Indian seafarers were also kidnapped in the past but they were eventually released; the last abducted Indian seafarer was released in November 2013 after spending a staggering four years and one month in captivity.
In Shetty’s view, Southeast Asia is largely safe. “Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are responsible nations, and they are capable of reacting effectively (to combat piracy). One deterrent against piracy is to forfeit and freeze financial assets originating from piracy, thus preventing money-laundering and financing of terrorism,” he emphasized.
One question currently under discussion is whether shipping lines will stop posting security guards on their ships with the sharp decline in Somali piracy. Keeping security guards on ships, after all, costs money.
Armed guards constitute just one layer of defense amongst many other layers, say security experts. The absence – or the inadequate presence – of armed guards on cargo ships in Southeast Asia encourages pirates to attack seafarers.
“In Southeast Asia, pirates know they can get away with attacks because there is no coordinated response, and vessels are pretty much undefended,” one expert said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
According to a recent report from the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and International Maritime Bureau (IMB), Southeast Asia accounts for 55% of the world’s 54 piracy and armed robbery incidents since the start of 2015, causing the region to regain its reputation as the world’s number one piracy trouble spot. ICC and IMB data suggests that pirates in Southeast Asia, on average, hijack a small coastal tanker every two weeks.
Indeed, from January until June 2015, 56 cases of piracy had taken place in the Malacca Strait. Of these, 21 were cases of suspected piracy, 22 were attempted piracies, and 13 were confirmed piracies. Indonesia had the highest number of attacks, accounting for almost 40% of the attacks. Vietnam has also seen an increase in armed robbery incidents, with thieves breaking into ships at anchor. Most acts of piracy were carried out by armed gangs targeting small coastal tankers to steal their fuel. During the same time period, there were no incidents of piracy in Somalia.
By Manik Mehta
International Correspondent | New York
