3 Συνημμένο(α)
Κόλπος του ’ντεν (Gulf of Aden)
Ο κόλπος του Άντεν είναι ένας σηματικός θαλάσσιος δρόμος αφού από εκέι περνάνε τα πλοία βγαίνοντας από την Ερυθρά προς Ινδίες, Κίνα, Ιαπωνία αλλά και προς τον Περσικό κόλπο.
Συνημμένο Αρχείο 17536
Συνημμένο Αρχείο 17537
Συνημμένο Αρχείο 55930
τΑ τελευταία χρόνια υπάρχει μεγάλο πρόβλημα πειρατείας κοντά στις ακτες της Σομαλίας. Για την αντιμετώπισήτης έχει ανπτυχτεί εκέι διεθνής ναυτική δύναμη. Αλλά παρόλα αυτά τράι ελληνόκτητα πλοία δέχτηκαν επιθέσεις τον τελευταίο μήνα.
Defensive Measures for Vessels
Δυό ακόμη ανακοινώσεις ουσιατικές που μπορεί να βοηθήσουν. Ανακοινώθηκαν χθες με την ανακοίνωσε με χθεσινή της εγκύκλιο υπ. αριθ. 6333 / 24.9.2008 η ΕΕΕ
Joint War Committee
Suite 358, Lloyd’s, One Lime Street
London EC3M 7DQ
Tel: (+44) 020 7327 3333 Fax: (+44) 020 7327 4443
Enquiries to: Neil Roberts
Direct Dial: 0207 327 8375
Email: [email protected]
JW 2008/002
10 September 2008
Defensive Measures for Vessels
Members will be aware of the coalition patrolled shipping channel in the Gulf of Aden. This, whilst a positive step is only one part of the picture.
At the recent Joint War Committee meeting, the following basic measures were advised by Aegis Defence Services as the best ways to safeguard vessels transiting the area in addition to using the coalition patrolled channel:
Shipowners should ensure crew have a contact liaison number for use when attacked, preferably posted in the wheelhouse, so they can call for help. This should form part of revised standard operating procedures which should also include emergency drills so the crew know how to react when confronted with a suspicious approach or an attack.
As soon as the vessel enters the area, contact should be made with naval units and other vessels.
The human eye remains the best form of initial defence and so transiting vessels should employ a 24 hour standing watch. All available radars should be used and constantly monitored.
Speed should be maintained and evasive manoeuvres used if necessary. Experience has shown that high pressure fire hoses are very effective at repelling boarders.
Summary of possible measures:
- Use of the coalition patrolled channel
- Revised operating procedures
- Emergency drills
- Have a contact number in the wheelhouse
- Contact naval units in the area
- Contact other vessels in the area
- Standing watch
- Constant radar watch
- Maintain speed
- Manoeuvring
- Use of fire hoses
In a recent attack, the crew of a North Korean vessel (Dae Hong Dan) were able to reclaim control of the vessel having remained safe in the engineering space. Owners could be asked whether they have made provision for a secure accommodation area, from which the crew could steer and control the vessel.
Neil Roberts
Secretary
Contact Details for Gulf of Aden Voyages
Joint War Committee
Suite 358, Lloyd’s, One Lime Street
London EC3M 7DQ
Tel: (+44) 020 7327 3333 Fax: (+44) 020 7327 4443
Contact Details for Gulf of Aden Voyages
In JW2008/002, a list of basic measures was given which underwriters might expect shipowners to be aware of and could ask about. This has prompted a number of enquiries and in response, Aegis have advised the following which the International Chamber of Shipping will also be circulating to their members, the shipowners:
For emergency military response, in order of priority;
1) United Kingdom Maritime Trade Office, Dubai (UKMTO) (will relay to naval units)
Cdr David Bancroft, [email protected]
Tel +971 50 552 3215, Fax +971 4 306 5710, Telex (51) 210473
2) Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) has assets, and will also relay
Maritime Security and Safety Officer, Lt Cdr Brett Morash USN,
[email protected] or [email protected]
Tel +253-358-978.
3) Maritime Liaison Office -Bahrain (MARLO - Bahrain) will relay
Capt Tom Hastings, Work: +973-1785-3927, Cell: +973-3944-2117
To report an attack,in order of priority;
1) IMB Piracy Reporting Centre
IMB/ICC-CCS 24 Hour Anti Piracy Helpline Tel: + 60 3 2031 0014
IMB Piracy Reporting Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .
Tel + 60 3 2078 5763
Fax + 60 3 2078 5769
Telex MA34199 IMBPCI
E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]
2) Mayday on VHF Channel 16
3) UKMTO Dubai
Background Notes:
The International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur is also a good contact point in the event of an attack, well practised in getting relevant information to the correct people to coordinate a response should the situation require it.
Vessels should always have access to VHF Channel 16, the maritime emergency channel, which military vessels keep a listening watch on so a Mayday issued through those means should get to local forces.
The bridge should have a number of different contact details readily to hand, including the Company Security Officer, regional maritime military reporting centres and the International Maritime Bureau. The Company Security Plan and Ship Security Plan (both ISPS requirements) should also list the company's established Standard Operating Procedures in the event of emergency, including contact lists, so the master (and/or designated Ship Security Officer) should have those at hand.
The local reporting centres, such as MARLO - Bahrain or UKMTO in Dubai, are NCAGS (Naval Cooperation and Guidance to Shipping) organisations and, as such, have been specifically designated as the information exchange point between military forces and commercial vessels. Contact should be made with one of them when approaching the Gulf of Aden, in case there is any information to be passed on. These offices can then contact the military units if necessary.
Pirates in Somalia threaten lives of seafarers amd the security of world trade
INADEQUATE RESPONSE BY GOVERNMENTS AND THEIR NAVAL FORCES IS UNACCEPTABLE SAYS INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING INDUSTRY
The international shipping industry (represented by BIMCO, ICS/ISF, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO and the International Transport Workers’ Federation) is dismayed by recent comments, attributed to leaders of the Coalition Task Force operating in the Gulf of Aden, that it is not the job of navy forces to protect merchant ships and their crews from increasingly frequent attacks from pirates operating out of Somalia.
The pirates are now attacking ships on a daily basis with machine guns and rocket propelled grenades, and currently holding over 200 seafarers hostage. The pirates are operating with impunity, and governments stand idly by.
If civil aircraft were being hijacked on a daily basis, the response of governments would be very different. Yet ships, which are the lifeblood of the global economy, are seemingly out of sight and out of mind. This apparent indifference to the lives of merchant seafarers and the consequences for society at large is simply unacceptable.
The shipping industry is utterly amazed that the world’s leading nations, with the naval resources at their disposal, are unable to maintain the security of one of the world’s most strategically important seaways, linking Europe to Asia via the Red Sea/Suez Canal.
Since 9/11, the international shipping industry has spent billions of dollars to comply with stringent new security requirements, agreed by the international community to address concerns about terrorism. Yet when merchant ships – which carry 90% of world trade and keep the world economy moving - are subject to attack by violent pirates, the response of many governments is that it is not their problem and that ships should hire mercenaries to protect themselves.
The arming of merchant ships, as suggested by the Task Force, will almost certainly put the lives of ships’ crews in even greater danger and is likely to escalate the level of violence employed by the pirates. It would also be illegal under the national law of many ships’ flag states and in many of the countries to which they are trading.
The industry understands that military resources are stretched and that the Coalition Task Force is doing what it can, consistent with current rules of engagement provided by participating governments.
But the international shipping industry, in the strongest possible way, urges governments to commit the necessary navy vessels now, and to ensure they have the freedom to engage forcefully against any act of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
Governments must issue clear rules of engagement to allow naval forces to intercept and take appropriate action against these violent pirates, and the oceangoing ‘motherships’ from which the pirates are operating, as permitted by UN Security Council Resolution 1816, of 2 June 2008, and existing international law about the rights of States to repress criminal acts on the high seas.
Governments must also ensure that these pirates and armed robbers, who are terrorising the high seas, are brought to justice in a court of law and are not allowed to resume their piratical activities unimpeded because of governments’ unwillingness to take the necessary action.
There should be no doubt that the situation is now so serious that major shipping companies, who are currently negotiating with charterers to avoid transiting the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea/Suez Canal all together, will decide to redirect their ships via the Cape of Good Hope. This would add several weeks to the duration of many ships’ voyages and would have severe consequences for international trade, the maintenance of inventories and the price of fuel and raw materials. This would also affect not just those countries to which cargoes are destined but all global seaborne trade, a consequence which, in the current economic climate, must surely be avoided.
A repeat of the crisis in the early 1970s, when the Suez Canal was closed and shipping was similarly diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, must be prevented at all cost, thus this call for urgent measures now – today and not tomorrow!
It cannot escape notice that the supply of consumer goods – the majority of which are carried from Asia to Europe via this vital sea lane - could be also seriously affected.
The international shipping industry recognises that the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization (IMO), with whom it continues to liaise daily, has acknowledged the massive severity of the problem and has similarly implored the United Nations and the UN Security Council to ensure that appropriate action is taken. But far greater urgency is required by governments and their navies, particularly those in the Coalition Task Force who are in the best position to restore security to this critical trade artery.
We need action, not words or rhetoric. What is at stake are the lives of merchant seafarers and the security of world trade.
End
Notes:
UN Security Council Resolution 1816, adopted on 2 June, permits States co-operating with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, for a period of six months, to enter the country's territorial waters and use "all necessary means" to repress acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Article 105, states ‘On the high seas, or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State, every State may seize a pirate ship or aircraft taken by piracy and under the control of pirates, and arrest the persons and seize the property on board’. The rights of States to act against criminal acts at sea is reinforced by the IMO Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention).
Since 9/11, shipping companies and their crews have had to comply with the IMO International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code, adopted in 2002, and various new cargo security requirements within the context of the World Customs Organization ‘SAFE Framework’. The cost of compliance, aimed at protecting the international community from the risk of terrorism, amounts to billions of dollars.
Additional information about the most recent pirate attacks against ships off Somalia can be found at www.icc-ccs.org/prc/piracyreport.php
General information about the international shipping industry can be found at www.shippingfacts.com
For more details please contact:
BIMCO
Peter Grube [email protected]
Tel : +45 44 36 6800
ICS/ISF (International Chamber of Shipping/International Shipping Federation)
Simon Bennett [email protected]
Tel : +44 20 7417 8844
INTERCARGO
Rob Lomas [email protected]
Tel : +44 20 7977 7030
INTERTANKO
Bill Box [email protected]
Tel : +44 20 7977 7010
ITF Sam Dawson [email protected]
Tel: +44 20 7940 9260
Source: BIMCO