Lingering piracy

The interception of a pirated ship, Alondra Rainbow, by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard after it was spotted on the west coast by a Dornier aircraft is indeed a remarkable achievement. It is a demonstration of the state of alertness which made it possible for the Navy to guess correctly that the ship had been pirated when it saw that it had been painted afresh, obviously to obliterate its having been registered earlier as MV Mega Rama. In this case of piracy, the ship was hijacked by a 17-member crew, who are suspected to be Indonesians, from the crew of fifteen who were in charge of the ship.

The sensational story of the Rainbow is an astonishing reminder that such daring piracy is still flourishing and has not become history as many might have thought. Pirates are still very much in business in view of the fact that the International Maritime Bureau runs a Piracy Reporting Center (RPC) based in Kuala Lumpur to keep track of those sailing in pursuit of loot on international waters.

The setting up of the RPC by the International Maritime Bureau at Kuala Lumpur was intended to keep the pirates on the run and nab them. It offers round-the-clock reports on suspicious craft movements on the high seas and its hot line gives prompt advice to ships in the region to increase their speed when it suspects the presence of pirates in their vicinity. An effective antipiracy step recommended by the RPC is that the ships should waggle their sterns -- the deliberate adoption of irregular and unsteady movements -- making it difficult for pirates to board them in mid-sea. The RPC has also drawn the attention of the navies and the coast guards to how the pirated ships are becoming exposed to detection because of the repainting of the vessels done in haste and their new names being misspelt. The Indian Navy should take full advantage of these and other steps initiated by the RPC and remain on its guard against piracy on the high seas.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi