Attacks on vessels in various parts of the world are a real and growing problem. All interested parties, including governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and the industry itself, need to take all possible measures to tackle the problem and reduce the risk to seafarers, ships and international trade.

Recent years have seen a steady rise in the number and severity of reported incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships, posing an increasing danger to the world’s shipping and to international trade. In cases where vessels are taken from the control of the crew, it is also a potential cause of environmental disasters.

It is difficult to assess the scale of the problem, as statistics are not precise. A substantial number of incidents are said to go unreported – either for fear of reprisals, because of doubts that the incident will be investigated, or out of reluctance to delay the ship’s onward passage. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC/IMB), as well as the ISF and the ICS, record incidents of attacks worldwide. All relevant figures show that there has been a clear increase in attacks since their records started.

Although no ports are immune from the risk of attacks on vessels, the figures show a continuing pattern of attacks in South East Asia and the Far East, especially in Indonesian and Malaysian ports and adjacent waters; in Brazil and Ecuador in South America; in and around the Indian sub-continent; in certain ports in West Africa, notably in Nigeria; in east and north east Africa, especially in waters off Somalia.

Indonesia is the area of highest risk, with the number of recorded attacks in 2000 at 112 (114 in 1999 and 38 in 1998).

The majority of attacks occur in territorial waters, more often while ships are at anchor or alongside a berth than when they are under way. Relatively few take place in international waters but these are often the most serious and life threatening to the crews on board.

There are three main types of attack:

• opportunity theft by persons who manage to gain access to the vessel, in port or at anchor, and steal anything handy such as paint or mooring ropes;
• planned robbery, alongside, at anchor or underway, targeted mainly at money, crews’ personal effects, and ships’ equipment, often carried out by increasingly organised, determined and well-armed gangs;
• permanent hijacking of ships and cargoes with crews sometimes being murdered, cast adrift or held to ransom.

The last two types of attack are on the increase. Hijacking of ships for their cargoes is serious, organised crime and is most prevalent in the South China Sea area and off Somalia. It causes suffering to the crew, who are often badly treated and held hostage and, in the worst cases, murdered.

"Piracy" is defined in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (article 101) as follows:

"Piracy consists of any of the following acts:

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft.

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State,

(b) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

(c) any act inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in sub-paragraph (a) or (b)."

It follows, therefore, that, in the strictly legal sense, attacks on vessels which take place within the jurisdiction of a state (i.e. within territorial waters), are not "piracy", and the perpetrators are not "pirates". This is a fine distinction to the victims. However, attacks on vessels which take place within the jurisdiction of a state, are that state’s responsibility to address.

The reports which follow include all reported attacks on vessels wherever they have occurred.

IMO has been working to combat piracy since 1983, when its Assembly passed a resolution calling on governments to take urgent measures to prevent and suppress acts of piracy in or adjacent to their waters. To provide accurate and up-to-date statistics on the nature and extent of the problem, IMO also called on its members, and non-governmental organisations in consultative status, such as ICC/IMB, BIMCO and ICS, to submit details of all attacks of which they become aware. From these reports, IMO produces monthly and annual summaries highlighting the high-risk areas.

Co-operation is crucial if piracy is to be tackled effectively. Difficulties in co-ordination and practical considerations mean that many attacks are not investigated and the criminals remain free to attack again. When an incident occurs on the high seas, the flag State is responsible for investigation. However, the permission and assistance of the relevant coastal states are necessary if a thorough investigation is to be carried out. A state’s right of "hot pursuit" ceases as soon as a ship enters the territorial waters of another state, so, unless there is effective communication between neighbouring coastal States, pirates can avoid arrest. The coastal state is responsible for investigating attacks on ships in its ports or territorial waters.

A good example of co-operation occurred in response to attacks on vessels in the Malacca/Singapore Strait where, in 1992, the three coastal States (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore) established co-ordinated patrols of the area. This was reinforced in October 1992, when ICC/IMB set up its Regional Piracy Centre in Kuala Lumpur. This 24-hour information centre acts as a focal point for gathering and disseminating reports about incidents of piracy and suspicious movements of vessels, and issues warnings and advice to ships’ masters and owners, as well as alerting law enforcement agencies. (ICC/IMB’s regional piracy centre can be reached at: Tel (011) 60-03-201-0014, fax (011) 60-03-238-5769, telex ma 31880 imbpci and at www.iccwbo.org/ccs/menu_imb_piracy.asp

These measures together, seemed to be a great deterrent to pirates in the Malacca/ Singapore Strait area. There was a sharp drop in the number of attacks in the Malacca Strait, which had previously been one of the world’s worst piracy hotspots: 32 attacks in 1991, five in 1993, none in 1997 or 1998 although a spate of attacks which started in the first half of 1999 and have increased in frequency since, indicates the re-emergence of the threat there.

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