Cooperation needed to fight piracy

Cooperation needed to fight piracy

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Piracy in Asia has risen sharply since the region's financial crisis and continues virtually unchecked, as governments and international bodies talk about tackling the problem but struggle to translate words into action, analysts said on Wednesday.

"In maritime crime, piracy and armed robbery have given Asia a bad name," Malaysia's First Adm. Noor Azman Othman said at a conference on conflict reduction in the Asia-Pacific.

According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirate attacks reported in the region tripled between 1991 and 1999. The 300 attacks in the Asia-Pacific were more than a third of the total number worldwide.

The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that high-sea piracy costs about US$450 million a year. Add onto that the indirect costs of higher freight and insurance charges, officials say.

The problem is getting worse. In 2000, attacks increased by 56 percent to an all-time high of 469. Figures for the first three months of 2001 show the trend is continuing.

In another worrying trend, hit-and-run attacks by armed robbers who shimmy up rope ladders to raid cargo ships' safes and the pockets of crew are increasingly common, says the bureau, a privately-funded watchdog body.

"Generally, these crimes have gone unchecked," Noor said, in a written address to the Asia-Pacific Roundtable, a meeting of more than 200 academics, bureaucrats and businesspeople from 22 countries.

The achipelagic waters of Indonesia and the Philippines are the most dangerous, along with the Malacca Straits, the narrow channel between the Malay peninsula and Indonesia.

"The increasing piracy in 2000, most notably in Indonesia and the Malacca Strait, reflects both the economic and political instability ashore in Indonesia and a tendency to increased violence," Stanley Weeks, an expert with the U.S.-based Science Applications International Corp., said in his address.

Economic and social instability begun when Asian economies starting crashing in 1997 have pushed some Southeast Asians into piracy. They have also helped stifle efforts to organize a multilateral approach to fighting it, analysts say.

Chief among these blockages are international laws which prevent one country's authorities from catching criminals in another's territory. This allows raiders to strike in one country and escape to safety in the waters of another. Apathy and limited resources are also problems.

"Not every state shares the same aspirations nor is fully committed in combating the crime, as there are more important priorities on the security agenda," Noor said.

Despite clear evidence that joint exercises and can drastically cut piracy rates, "there is clear scope for greater cooperation of naval and coast forces on the high seas," said Weeks.

One such plan was announced by Japan on Wednesday. The Coast Guard said it will send armed patrol ships to Southeast Asia four times a year to help fight piracy. Details of the plan are still being worked out.

Since March 2000, at least nine international conferences have been held to discuss piracy and transnational crime in Asia, bringing together both government and private sector delegates.

But success has been patchy. Governments continue to differ on how their waters should be policed, and have resisted giving foreign armed forces access to their territory.

"Offensive action against sea robbers is best to be unilaterally undertaken by the state that harbors them," said Noor.

Weeks said both increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation is clearly necessary, and warned that skepticism about the effectiveness of the ASEAN Regional Forum would increase if it fails to address the " clear and present danger of piracy."

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations meets regularly, and holds group talks with China, North Korea and Japan.