EU troops to help combat piracy

Published on Friday 19 December 2008 20:47

GERMANY has agreed to send up to 1,400 soldiers and a frigate to the Gulf of Aden as part of a European Union operation to fight pirates off Somalia.

The troops will take part in the first such naval operation organised by the 27 member states, which aims to provide protection to ships delivering aid to Somalia, as well as civilian vessels.

A surge in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off has earned gunmen millions of dollars from ransoms, pushed up insurance costs and prompted a rush of foreign warships to the area.

Nearly 400 people and 19 ships are currently being held after attacks along the coast, including a Saudi supertanker with two million barrels of oil on board and a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 tanks.

As the world's top exporter of goods, Germany is heavily dependent on safe seaways, with a large majority of its imports and exports being delivered by sea.

German forces serve in the Horn of Africa under the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom – but that mission only allowed them to provide emergency assistance to ships, not to directly target pirates, according to Germany's defence ministry.

Yesterday, immediately after a parliamentary vote, the German frigate Karlsruhe, already in the region under the US-led mission, was made available for the EU operation.

It also emerged yesterday that all 11 Indonesian crew members on board a Malaysian tugboat hijacked this week, are safe and have enough food for a month.

Rais Yatim, Malaysia's foreign minister, said the pirates telephoned the tugboat's owner, Masindra Shipping, to say the vessel was being taken to Somali waters from near Yemen, where it was hijacked on Tuesday. The pirates told a Masindra representative that the payment of ransom would be discussed later.

On Wednesday, a Malaysian navy vessel and a Malaysian military helicopter helped prevent the hijacking of a China-registered vessel, Zhenhua 4. The 30 crew members fought for four hours after nine pirates armed with rocket launchers and heavy machine guns boarded the ship.

The crew locked themselves in their accommodation area, using fire hydrants and Molotov cocktails to prevent the attackers from entering, according to an official from China Search and Rescue. The helicopter fired warning shots at the pirates' boat, and the bandits left. The crew were unharmed.

Sri Indera Sakti was originally sent to the Gulf of Aden after two Malaysian ships were hijacked on 19 and 29 August. A Filipino crew member was killed by a stray bullet during the first hijacking, with all remaining crew members later released after an undisclosed amount of ransom was paid.

On Thursday, China pledged to send warships to join the international task force – the Chinese navy's first major mission outside the Pacific in modern times.

The move comes after a unanimous UN Security Council vote this week to authorise nations to conduct land and air attacks on the increasingly audacious pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Liu Jianchao, Beijing's foreign ministry spokesman, said China welcomed stronger international co-operation in countering piracy.

"We are making preparations and arrangements to deploy naval ships to the Gulf of Aden for escorting operations," he added.

The Global Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party, said the fleet could consist of two cruisers and one large supply ship.

Pirates based in Somalia have hijacked more than 40 vessels this year. A multinational naval force patrols the area, but is unable to fully cover the vast waterway at all times.

The latest attacks have highlighted the ongoing risks for ships in the Gulf of Aden, which lies between Somalia and Yemen on the route to the Suez Canal, the quickest route from Asia to Europe and the Americas.

WHAT NEXT

THE commander of a Royal Navy warship yesterday vowed to bring more pirates to justice after returning from deployment off Somalia.

Commander Peter Sparkes was speaking as the company of his ship, HMS Cumberland, were greeted by hundreds of family and friends at Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth.

The Type-22 frigate was deployed to the Gulf of Aden where it stopped four vessels and seized assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and pistols.

The battles with pirates resulted in eight men being arrested. They will face trial in Kenya next year.

In other incidents, HMS Cumberland destroyed a number of fast "attack skiffs", speedboats used to board merchant vessels.

Cdr Sparkes said: "Pirates represent a very clear and present threat to merchant vessels, but the presence of a warship does deter them.

"The ship has made a very real contribution to the international effort to combat piracy and sent a clear message of intent to those involved in it."