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WASHINGTON: There are half a million Filipino seafarers all over the
world being besieged by many critical incidents at sea, including
pirate attacks. According to a new US study, however, while
incidents of piracy have increased across the world since 2000,
there is no evidence to support fears of extremist groups linking up
with pirates for their operations.
Instead, it attributed the rise of piracy to the
expansion of the global sea trade, congested chokepoints, corrupt
officials, shifting spending priorities, lax coastal and port
security, and the availability of small arms.
“Combined with the large number of ports
around the world, this growth has provided pirates with an almost
limitless range of tempting, high pay-off targets,” said the study
by the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit organization.
Authored by Peter Chalk, the study said 2,463
actual or attempted acts of piracy occurred between 2000 and the end
of 2006, nearly a quarter of them in waters around the Indonesian
archipelago.
The average annual rate of incidents during
those years was 68 percent higher than in the previous six-year
period, the study said.
It also said fears that extremist groups would
use pirate gangs and networks to move material or fighters, or to
carry out attacks, have not materialized.
“To date, there has been no credible evidence
to support speculation about such a nexus emerging,” the report
said. “Just as importantly, the objectives of the two actors
remain entirely distinct.”
Nevertheless, the report said, governments,
international organizations and major shipping interests remain
concerned that extremist groups could exploit the same
vulnerabilities in commercial maritime trade that attract pirates.
“There have been persistent reports of
political extremists boarding vessels in Southeast Asia in an
apparent effort to learn how to pilot them for a rerun of 9/11 at
sea,” it said.
“Indeed, such a specter was a principal factor
in driving the Lloyd’s Joint War Council to briefly designate the
Malacca Straits as an area of enhanced risk in 2005,” the study
said.
It said there has been “a modest yet highly
discernible spike in high-profile terrorist incidents at sea over
the past six years.”
“In addition, there has been a spate of
significant maritime terrorist plots that have been preempted before
execution,” it said.
Planned strikes included an aborted attack
against the USS The Sullivans in January 2000; bombings of US naval
ships sailing in Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian waters;
suicide strikes against western shipping interests in the
Mediterranean; small boat rammings of supertankers transiting the
Strait of Gibraltar; and attacks on cruise liners taking Israeli
tourists to Turkey, the report said.
“Combined, these various incidents have
galvanized fears in the west that terrorists, especially militants
connected with the international jihadist network, are moving to
decisively extend operational mandates beyond purely land-based
theaters,” the report said.
-- AFP
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