LONDON/KUALA LUMPUR: Pirate attacks around the world hit their highest level last year since 2003, with Somali gangs accounting for more than half the incidents and a growing worry, a maritime watchdog said on Thursday.
Somali pirates have stepped up attacks in recent months and ventured further out to sea, making millions of dollars in ransom by hijacking ships in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia.
The London headquartered International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said its piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur logged a total of 406 incidents last year, with 217 of those attributed to Somali pirates. There were 293 incidents in 2008.
“Pirates are now more desperate to hijack ships. Recent attacks, at distances of over 1,000 nautical miles from Mogadishu, indicate the increased capability of the Somali pirates,” the bureau’s annual report said.
Foreign navies have been deployed off the Gulf of Aden since the start of 2009 and have operated convoys, as well as setting up and monitoring a transit corridor for ships to pass through vulnerable points.
But their forces have been stretched over the vast expanses of water including the Indian Ocean, leaving vessels vulnerable.
“The international navies play a critical role in the prevention of piracy off Somalia and it is vital that they remain in the region,” IMB director Pottengal Mukundan said.
Britain’s Royal Navy chief Admiral Mark Stanhope told Reuters last week that efforts by foreign navies to combat Somali piracy have made a difference but would not be able to eradicate attacks.
Authorities have been unable to deal with the pirates due to the lawless situation in Somalia although US courts are now handling the case of a Somali teenager who was extradited to New York last year on charges of attempting to hijack a US ship.
The bulk of Somali pirate attacks in 2008 were mainly concentrated in the Gulf of Aden but by the last quarter of 2009 their focus had shifted to targets along the east coast of Somalia with more activity in the Indian Ocean, the IMB said.
The waters around Nigeria remained very dangerous. In 2009, 28 attacks were logged compared with 40 in 2008, but external sources suggested a further 30 unconfirmed attacks last year, it said. Most incidents relate to the oil industry.
“The attacks in Nigerian waters are frequently much more violent in nature than those in Somalia,” Mukundan said.
“The incidence of violent attacks against ships’ crew has also spilled over into neighboring states.”
The last time the total number of global incidents topped 400 was in 2003 and 2009 marked the third successive year of increases in attacks, the IMB said.
“Our hope is that this escalating volume of piracy is met with a heightened response from the governments and their agencies best able to reduce and contain these risks to human life and property,” Mukundan said.
INTERVIEW-Thai “red shirts” say protest to target elite * UDD leader says Thai elites should steer clear of politics * “Red shirts” pledge loyalty to king * Leader says protest rallies will be peaceful By Ambika Ahuja and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK, Jan 14 (Reuters) — Thailand’s “red shirt” movement will hold a week-long protest in Bangkok from mid-February, one of its leader said on Thursday, taking aim at unelected elites it says have long dominated the country’s political landscape.
Although the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) would continue targeting advisers to the country’s revered monarchy, it remained loyal to the king and was not pursuing a republican agenda, its main leader Veera Musikapong said.
Thousands of “red shirts,” supporters of exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have already begun protests ahead of the mass rally next month near the seat of government in the historic heart of Bangkok.
Concern about the protests has unsettled the stock market in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy. Previous clashes led to downgrades in Thailand’s credit ratings.
“If there are protesters all over Bangkok, the government will be paralyzed,” Veera told Reuters in an interview.
Veera said members of the Privy Council, a body of palace advisers, were among the unelected elites who should not abuse their power or interfere in the running of their country.
“We want to protect the constitutional monarchy but we want the elite to stay away from politics,” Veera said.
“If they want to be in politics, they should do so openly through elections.” Criticism of advisers to revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej is a new phenomenon in Thailand, where the 82-year-old monarch is seen as the sole unifying figure and a selfless helper of the poor.
While the UDD has long called for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call elections, Veera said it also wanted to highlight “unlawful activities” of those in privileged positions and “double standards” in law enforcement.
“ILLEGAL OCCUPATION” On Monday, the UDD rallied outside the rural home of royal adviser Surayud Chulanont, whom they accuse of involvement in the 2006 military coup that toppled Thaksin and angered the rural masses, who elected the billionaire twice in landslides.
The group denounced Surayud, a former army chief, for his alleged illegal occupation of forest land in the mountains in northeastern Thailand. Coup leaders chose Surayud to serve as prime minister until elections in December 2007.
“We used to fight against what we believed was a military dictatorship,” said Veera, who was a member of Thaksin’s now-defunct Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party.
“But now we know it is a bigger network than that. It is the aristocrats propped up by the military, the judiciary, the bureaucrats and other unelected figures which we are fighting against,” he said.
Later this month, the UDD plans to hold a mass rally at a golf course in eastern Chanthaburi province. They claim the course is built on forest reserve land and may have links to the 89-year-old president of the privy council, Prem Tinsulanonda.
Prem, also a former premier and army chief, is the king’s most trusted aide. The UDD say Prem masterminded the coup against Thaksin, an allegation he has repeatedly denied.
Veera said the big Bangkok protest would last at least seven days. The rally is likely to coincide with a censure debate in parliament by the Thaksin-allied opposition party, Puea Thai, to exploit cracks in Abhisit’s shaky coalition.
Few few expect it will topple the government.
It is likely to take place less than two weeks before a Feb. 26 court verdict on whether $2.3 billion of assets belonging to the family of Thaksin, who is accused of massive corruption and abuse of power while in office, should be confiscated.
Veera sidestepped questions about what the group planned to do if it failed to topple Abhisit’s government, insisting the group would use only peaceful means to achieve its goal of bringing “full-fledged democracy” to Thailand.
“It will take as long as it takes,” he said. “But people are demanding their rights be respected and elections be respected.”
