Commodore C Uday Bhaskar (Retd)
director of National Maritime Foundation and formerly interim head of Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses
director of National Maritime Foundation and formerly interim head of Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses
New Delhi
12 March 2011
How serious is the problem of piracy for India?
Piracy is as old as seafaring, but it is arousing interest today in the
audio-visual media and in Parliament because of the pressure that the
families of the hostages have brought to bear. There still are over 50
Indian hostages on different ships. Piracy has security and economic
implications for India. By the end of 2010, the pirates had become so
audacious that they were moving to east of Lakshadweep and Minicoy
islands, meaning that they were actually in the Indian backyard. That
is also the time when the global community decided that this area is
risk-prone. The JWC (joint war committee, which represents London's
marine insurance community and independent security consultants) put
out an official advisory saying that from 1 January 2011, the Arabian
Sea up to 75 degrees east longitude is risk prone, meaning that the
Arabian Sea which is India's backyard is now considered to be a low
security area. As a result every major ship that is now sailing in
these waters has to pay a much higher insurance. That insurance money
is actually adversely impacting India's trade and economy, and the net
result is that the common man pays more for everything that is coming
by sea. It is very adversely affecting India's image, too. You can't
say that you are an emerging power when waters 12 miles beyond your
territorial limit are deemed to be risk-prone. I mean it is really a
slap in the face and I don't think anyone in this country has realised
the enormity of all of this.
Why can’t India take actions unilaterally or in consonance with the
international community, and what are the constraints in doing that?
Unfortunately, we have not learnt anything from the "Alondra Rainbow"
experience. (The vessel, MT Alondra Rainbow, was hijacked by pirates
but it was intercepted and captured in October 1999 in a coordinated
action by the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy and then towed to
Mumbai.) We did not review our legislation; we did not review our law
enforcement procedures; and we did not draw up a proactive response. If
you look back, I think for India the issue of piracy acquired the
equivalent of a tipping point in October 2008 when the Indian Navy
started anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. In the same month,
INS Tabar sank a Somali pirate ship but, regrettably, that became a
stand-alone kind of an incident. Having said that, the problem is
complex because the legal provisions currently are very tangled. A
reason is that today a merchant ship is a prime example of the
diversity of globalisation. A ship may be owned by one entity,
registered in another country, the crew will be drawn from different
nationalities, cargo is committed to some other party in some other
country, and it is quite possible that mid-voyage the vessel can change
ownership depending on the markets and so on. So globalisation is best
reflected in a merchant ship, and, therefore, different kinds of
legislation are applicable. Hence, India's ability to do something is
limited. At the same time, it is not enough to have a law; you must be
able to enforce it. Today seafarers are not just Indians. There are
Filipinos, Pakistanis, etc, but there is no viable equitable protection
for them. Technically the ship owners should be looking after the
welfare of the seamen but the State must, I think, step in, because you
cannot let your people just go defenceless into the outside world and
say sorry it is not my responsibility. Today the Government of India is
legally right to say that once an Indian national goes out, whether as
a tourist or as a worker, the State cannot take the responsibility.
But, I think that is a very insensitive approach.
What do you suggest the government should do?
I think India should first of all review piracy because not only is
piracy affecting the lives of Indian seamen but it is also affecting
the economy. One way to deal with it, I think, is to set up a
commission that would look at piracy across the board and all its
strands – operational, legal and administrative. The government should
talk to all the affected parties – the Indian Navy, the Indian Coast
Guard, ship owners, ports, chambers of commerce – and then come up with
a whole range of measures.
What could some of those measures be?
Operationally we should be seen to be playing with the other powers in
dealing with piracy. You can't say until Somalia stabilises we will
live with the piracy problem. You have to be innovative and proactive
and use the global community because everyone has a common interest
here. If pirates force insurance premiums to go up, all the major
importers are going to be affected. My suggestion is, why don't we try
and quarantine these pirates and prevent them from coming out? Let
there be the equivalent of a no fly zone, maybe a no sail zone, but you
need international legislation for that to happen, which means going to
the United Nations (UN) and looking at the UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea. Secondly, rules of engagement for pirates should be reviewed.
The Indian Navy should be given a certain amount of operational
directive and freedom so that when there is an exigency they can invoke
necessary laws. At the moment a Naval ship will open fire in self
defence. But what do you do with criminal activities at sea? The only
thing you can do today is apprehend them and bring them to shore and
charge them but the charges are difficult to sustain. Also, to deal
with piracy there needs to be adequate deterrent punishment. We caught
the “Alondra Rainbow” pirates in 1999 but in 2006 a higher court just
said let them go now. Thirdly, why doesn’t India get into an
arrangement with Kenya? Some countries are paying Kenya a fixed sum
every year so that when they catch pirates they deposit them in Kenya,
and then Kenya goes through the legal process, which means you need to
have a bilateral protocol. Fourthly, why doesn’t India think about of
having a semi-permanent Naval or Coast Guard presence, maybe in Kenya?
For instance, the Indian Navy took charge of Mozambique's sea security
during the African Union summit there in 2003. Fifthly, India has to
review its binary position of either UN or nothing. India has this very
curious position that its Indian military will operate outside only if
it is under the UN flag or alone. And, sixthly, in a globalised world
we have all kinds of mechanisms such as WTO (World Trade Organisation)
and ILO (International Labour Organisation) to protect the rights of
our workers. The seafarers are almost like migrant labour, but they
have no bargaining power because they sign what are called as personal
indemnity bonds and therefore many of their rights are diluted. So we
have to now learn how to negotiate with the major multinationals. Today
there are only a few multinational companies that control global
shipping. The safety and welfare of seafarers has to be taken care of.
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