Royal Navy vows to hunt down Somali pirates

THE Royal Navy has vowed to hunt and pursue gangs of pirates in Somalian waters who have brought terror to the area in the past nine months.

Since March 15 this year there have been some 32 attacks by gangs operating under the command of ruthless Somalian warlords.

The number has shocked the world's shipping magnates and governments. Last year, there were just two attacks in the same area while in 2003, there were only three.

The Somalian pirates' favoured tactic is to capture an entire ship, cargo and crew. The vessel and its occupants are then taken to a safe-haven port controlled by warlords and held until a ransom is paid. One recent amount came to GBP300,000.

There are currently seven vessels and more than 100 merchant sailors, from countries including Burma, Indonesia, the Phillipines and the Ukraine, held captive in Somalia.

The most disturbing recent attack was on the luxury cruise liner, the Seabourn Spirit, when pirates in two speedboats fired rockets and raked the vessel with automatic fire. They were eventually repelled by security officers onboard using a deafening sonic boom device.

With British shipping now advised by the UK government to stay at least 150 nautical miles from the Somali coast, the pirates have changed their tactics so they can target vessels further out to sea.

They are now using "motherships" - larger vessels moored out in the Indian Ocean - from which they can dispatch speedboat "snatch squads" of pirates once a merchant ship appears on the radar.

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau which represents global shipping and is endorsed by the UN's International Maritime Organisation and has observer status with Interpol, called on British and American naval vessels to defend the merchant ships.

"These Somalian pirates are basically hostage-takers, " said Mukundan. "They realise that shipping owners are prepared to lose their ship or cargo but not their crew.'' The Ministry of Defence told the Sunday Herald that British warships "would undertake action in pursuit of pirates and help deal with the problem". A spokesman added:

"The UK government vigorously opposes acts of piracy."

The MoD said it could not be any more explicit about action against pirates "due to security concerns".

Copyright 2005 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.