East Africa: Piracy - Seafarers' Death Toll Hits 62 in Four Years

Source: All Africa

Somali pirates have continued to hijack, torture, intimidate & murder seafarers raising the death toll to 62 seafarers who have died in the past four years as a direct result of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The deaths occurred through deliberate murder by pirates, suicide during the period of captivity, death from malnutrition and disease, death by drowning, or heart failure just after the hijacking.

This shocking figure has prompted the shipping industry's Save Our Seafarers (SOS) campaign to give even greater emphasis to its worldwide call for government action to tackle the issue.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors piracy worldwide through its Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC )has warned that the twice-yearly monsoon seasons in the Indian Ocean no longer appear to be a deterrent to Somali pirate activity.

But noted that the Monsoon continue to affect the seasonal pattern of piracy and location of attacks.

It noted that although there was no reported piracy in the Indian Ocean during last summer's monsoon season of June to August, there have been recent reports of pirate attacks on three vessels in the Indian Ocean during very rough seas approximately 450 nautical miles east of Socotra Island, Yemen.

Winds were reported to be force 7 with sea swells of approximately 4.5 metres. "These are not normally conditions conducive to launching attacks from small attack skiffs," the IMB comments.

In preparation for the monsoon seasons, Somali pirates usually turn to calmer waters.

In recent weeks there have been an increasing number of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea - 11 since 20 May.

The chairman of the SOS campaign, Giles Heimann said during the same period of four years, over 3,500 seafarers have been kidnapped and held hostage by pirate gangs, who subject them to traumas such as being used as human shields, being forced to operate their ship as a pirate mother ship under pirate control, and to extreme mental as well as physical anguish.

"Hundreds of these seafarers have been subjected to horrific torture including being hung by the ankles over the side of the ship, being shut in the ship's freezer room, having cable ties tightened round the genitals, being beaten, punched and kicked. Many of these seafarers remain traumatised and unable to return to their seafaring careers long after the hijack is over, if at all," he said.

For Heimann, "It is terrible, and completely unacceptable, that ordinary people going about their everyday work should have to encounter such horrors. There are more than 100,000 seafarers at any one time either preparing to go through this area (training and effecting the so-called 'hardening' of the ship with physical defences), or actually transiting these waters. Taking their families' feelings into account, you have up to half a million people every day gripped by fear due to Somali piracy."

The shipping industry continues to recognise and appreciate the constructive and supportive role played by the naval forces in this area.

But their effectiveness is impeded by the lack of political will in many governments to authorise the arrest and prosecution of detained pirates caught red handed.

This in turn restricts naval/military operations to no more than a 'catch and release' exercise that deters and disrupts the pirates only to a limited extent. The vast majority of pirates caught are released in this way.

According to Heimann, these 62 tragic deaths come as a direct consequence of pirate actions, but added that it is government inaction that has allowed piracy to spiral out of control in this area.

"It's time to stop this outrage. It's time for governments to take action. It's time for each one of us to stand up for the seafarers who bring us almost all our daily material needs," he said.

The SOS campaign is now supported by 24 industry organisations, signifying a unanimous strength of purpose from all sides of the shipping industry.

The SOS website, www.saveourseafarers.com allows supporters to specifically ask their government to take the necessary steps against the scourge of piracy at sea and ashore by: reducing the effectiveness of the easily-identifiable mother ships, authorising naval forces to hold pirates and deliver them for prosecution and punishment, increasing naval assets available in this area.