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By Paul M. Icamina, Special Reports Editor
THE numbers work against Filipinos at sea.
One in three crew of ships on international
waters are Filipinos. Some 270,000 Filipinos serve on almost
anything that floats, from small Panama-registered cargo vessels to
mega oil tankers to five-star luxury cruise ships.
“In all likelihood, every vessel sea-jacked by
pirates in the Gulf of Aden will have a substantial number of
Filipino crewmen on board,” says Jennifer Jardin-Manalili, head of
the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). “Hence,
the number of hostages for every vessel captured will have more
Filipinos than other nationalities.”
The official tally so far: 208 Filipinos taken
hostage by Somali pirates last year, 74 of them released and 134
still kept hostage.
In November, 18 Filipinos were abducted aboard a
Korean cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden, located in the Arabian Sea
between Yemen and Somalia. Six Filipinos were seized in October off
Nigeria’s southern oil-rich delta region where land-based
Filipinos have been abducted in recent years.
In August, 24 Filipinos aboard two ships were
seized there while 30 Filipinos also aboard two ships were seized
off Somalia.
The Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism estimates that in October and November last year pirates
took hostage one Filipino seafarer every 6 hours.
Some 100 ships have been attacked off the Somali
coast last year, of which 40 vessels have been hijacked, according
to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates,
including a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks and a Saudi
supertanker three times the size of an aircraft carrier and loaded
with $100-million worth of crude oil.
“The situation has deteriorated dramatically
in recent months, with an increase in both the frequency and the
ferocity of reported attacks,” the IMO says. Since 1984, 440 acts
of piracy and armed robbery were reported off Somalia, 120 of them
this year alone.
The IMO counts more than 35 ships seized by
pirates and more than 600 seafarers kidnapped and held for ransom.
Currently, 14 ships and some 280 seafarers from 25 nations are being
held hostage in Somalia. Two seafarers have been killed.
Warships
The United Nations Security Council in
mid-December authorized countries to launch land operations against
pirates, especially those off Somalia and Nigeria, and to forge
agreements with African states to put authorities on board vessels
to protect ships.
They may also deploy military ships and aircraft
and bring the pirates to court.
The UN move was an extension of a six-month
mandate that expired December 1 and which allowed states to enter
Somali waters and use all necessary means against piracy.
Already, the European Union has eight ships to
complement Denmark, Indian, Malaysian and Russian patrols in or near
the Gulf of Aden that, while nearby Somalia is notorious, is the
most dangerous.
Navies also escort vessels used by the UN World
Food Program to provide humanitarian relief to Somalia.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the
Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet now patrol the Gulf of Aden where some
106 vessels pass daily. Major commodities, goods and 12 percent of
oil transported by sea pass the Gulf of Aden.
In 2006, the Security Council encouraged
countries with naval vessels and military aircraft operating in
international waters and airspace adjacent to the coast of Somalia
to be vigilant for piracy.
They were to take action to protect merchant
shipping, especially ships transporting humanitarian aid. Piracy and
armed robbery significantly went down.
But the continuing civil conflict and political
instability in Somalia encouraged renewed attacks on ships.
The capital Mogadishu has an ineffectual
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) after the Union of Islamic
Courts was ousted in 2006 to 2007 by a US-backed invasion by
Ethiopia. The Ethiopians will be replaced this year by a 3,400-man
African Union force from Burundi and Uganda.
Meanwhile, piracy is being justified as a
maritime insurgency, even as a self-defense against foreign fishing
fleets poaching in Somali waters. Illegal fishing, mainly for tuna,
is worth $90 million a year, according to the Kenya-based Seafarers
Assistance Program.
Somalia is in chaos. A functioning Somaliland in
the north is not recognized. Pirates govern Puntland while warlords
control the south.
Armed robberies at sea are escalating because of
higher ransoms paid, ranging from $300,000 to $3 million.
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