Marine Security Services.
Piracy report reveals major increase in attacks in 1999.
London, 24 January 2000 - The number of reported piracy attacks worldwide for 1999 rose nearly 40% compared with 1998 figures and almost tripled compared with 1991 according to the ICC International Maritime Bureau in London (IMB).
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In its annual Piracy & Armed Robbery Against Ships report for 1999, the IMB reports a total of 285 separate attacks on ships either at sea, at anchor or in port. While the number of crew killed has declined, the trend to violence is giving renewed cause for concern. Figures released by the IMB show that pirates carried guns on 53 occasions and that knives were used twice as often as in 1998. Once again, the majority of piracy attacks in the last year took place in South East Asia with the number of attacks in Indonesian waters almost double that of last year.
The International Maritime Bureau has estimated that annual losses to piracy amount to some $200million. The losses get worse as pirate attacks become more bold, violent, and increasingly frequent. Vessels are reported to have been boarded in 217 instances and on 11 occasions pirates fired upon the ships they were targeting. A total of eight ships were hijacked in 1999.
Pirates
have murdered crews and seized whole ships with their cargoes,
sometimes with the tacit support of local officials from
neighbouring states.
It is impossible for those ashore to fully appreciate the trauma
pirate attacks cause, both physically and mentally.
A
British couple placidly sailing their rented yacht around the
Greek island of Corfu in May '97 could hardly believe what was
happening: masked men brandishing grenades and assault rifles
suddenly boarded their boat. The gang stripped the couple of
their possessions and the boat of its navigational gear, their
ordeal ending when they were rescued by Greek coastguards.
The Guide to Piracy and Armed Robbery ; whether you are at Portside at Anchor or Underway.
"The
1999 Annual Report highlights that modern piracy is violent,
bloody and ruthless. It is made all the more fearsome because its
victims know they are alone and defenceless," said Captain
Jayant Abhyankar, IMB Deputy
Director. IMB is a
specialized bureau of ICC Commercial
Crime Services, a division of the International Chamber of
Commerce. The
annual report draws attention to IMB's recent
initiative to take the fight against piracy onto the Internet
with weekly updates of attacks and warnings. The service, which
has been well received in the shipping world, is compiled from
daily status bulletins broadcast via satellite from the Piracy
Reporting Centre. Posting the information on the Internet means
shipowners and land based authorities are able to access the
updates as well as ships at sea. The address for the weekly
report is to be found at: www.icc-ccs.org Because
incidents of piracy conjure up images of Treasure Island,
legislators are often unwilling to take it seriously. There is
however an'International Law of the Sea' regarding Piracy.
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