Piratas do séc. XXI

[LM]

Security forces aboard a U.S. naval vessel fired warning shots toward two approaching small boats off the Somali coast Tuesday, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

The USNS John Lenthall is one of 14 fleet refueling ships operated by Military Sealift Command.

The rounds landed in the water, prompting the boats to turn around, and no casualties were reported, the military news release said.

It is unclear whether the boats were trying to attack the 41,000-ton USNS John Lenthall, the military said.

"It is clear they were not following the international rules of the road observed by mariners around the globe," it said.

The release noted that the location of the incident, the types of boats involved and the maneuvering were all "consistent with reports from previous attacks on merchant vessels in the region."

The USNS John Lenthall is one of 14 "fleet replenishment oilers" in the Military Sealift Fleet Support Command, according to a U.S. Navy Web site. Oilers refuel Navy ships at sea and any aircraft they may be carrying.

Attacks by pirates have increased dramatically off the northern coast of Somalia in the past year, prompting the United States and other nations to step up patrols in the region.

In May, the U.S. Navy warned merchant ships to stay at least 200 miles off the Somali coast. But the U.S. Maritime Administration warns that pirates sometimes issue false distress calls to lure ships closer to shore.

CNN 24/09/2008

[manuel.liste]

http://www.abc.es/20081111/internaciona ... 81111.html

La UE aprueba la misión «Atalanta» para combatir la piratería en Somalia

ENRIQUE SERBETO | BRUSELAS Martes, 11-11-08
Los ministros europeos de Defensa y Exteriores, que celebraron ayer su reunión semestral conjunta, adoptaron los detalles sobre la misión militar que enviarán a las aguas de Somalia para luchar contra la piratería. Es la primera operación naval que hace la Unión Europea en su corta historia de cooperación militar y por si fuera poco la comandará desde la base de Northwood (Reino Unido) el vicealmirante británico Phillip Jones. «Todo el mundo sabe lo poco entusiastas que han sido hasta ahora en Lóndres a la hora de construir estructuras de defensa comunes» dijo el ministro francés de Defensa, Herve de Morin, para justificar el simbolismo de la elección política de un cuartel general en Gran Bretaña.
Hasta ahora, diez países se han mostrado dispuestos a colaborar en la misión, aunque la primera misión del vicealmirante Jones va a ser la llamada «generación de fuerzas» que consiste en ensamblar las ofertas que ponen sobre la mesa todas las marinas que participarán. Alemania, Holanda, Bélgica, Suecia, Chipre, Lituania y Gran Bretaña, además de Francia y España, que han liderado el proyecto, se harán cargo del grueso de la misión que tendrá inicialmente una duración de un año. El mando de teatro será rotatorio cada cuatro meses,entre Grecia, España y Holanda, probablemente en este orden. España ha ofrecido una fragata y un buque de apoyo logístico, además del avión de aptrulla PH «Orión» que ya está en la zona. En total, estas unidades representan una dotación de unos 500 hombres.
Otro de los aspectos novedos de esta misión es que se prevé que los militares estarán autorizados a «emplear los medios necesarios, incluido el uso de la fuerza», lo que significa que pueden hacer prisioneros el caso de que capturen a barcos piratas. Los ministros debatierion ayer qué harán en este caso, puesto que muchos países no pueden aceptar que se entreguen a gobiernos que apliquen la pena de muerte o que apliquen la tortura. El secretario de Estado de Defensa, Constantino Méndez, que asistió en sustitución de la ministra Carme Chacón, fecordó que en España se va a restablecer el delito de piratería, lo que en última instancia permitiría juzgar en nuestro país a los delincuentes que capturen los militares españoles.
Además de la misión en Somalia, los ministros de Exteriores decidieron también reanudar las negiciaciones para firmar un acuerdo de asociación estratégica con Rusia que habían sido suspendidas tras la intervención militar enh Georgia. Lituania y Polonia han levntado sus reservas, lo que permitirá que el viernes, durante la cumbre UE-Rusia, se pueda dar inicio a este proceso de negociaciones que dirige la Comisión Europea.

La contribución española será de un P3 Orión, una fragata F100 y un buque de apoyo.
Los piratas capturados por los españoles podrían ser juzgados en España

[P44]

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... ip/384257/

Indian Navy foils attack by pirates, rescue ship


Agencies

Posted: Nov 11, 2008 at 1515 hrs IST

New Delhi, November 11: In the first-ever action after being deployed in the Gulf of Aden, Navy on Tuesday thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture an Indian merchant vessel in the region.

The ship, M V Jag Arnav, has recently crossed the Suez Canal and was eastward bound when it was surrounded by pirates, who tried to board and hijack the ship, Navy sources said in New Delhi.

When the 38,265-tonne bulk carrier, owned by Mumbai-based Great Eastern Shipping Company, raised an alarm, it caught the attention of the Indian Naval warship, INS Tabar, which was patrolling in the Gulf of Aden waters.

The Navy warship rushed its commandos on an armed helicopter to intervene and they successfully repulsed the pirates attacking the commercial carrier, sources added.

"An armed helicopter with marine commandos was launched from the naval warship to intervene and prevent the pirates from boarding and hijacking the merchant vessel. This timely and successful intervention led to the pirates aborting their attempt," sources said. The attack took place around 10.30 hours about 60 nautical miles of Aden, when the pirates came on speed boats armed with automatic weapons, they said.

Later, INS Tabar, which was about 25 nautical miles away from the place of pirate attack, closed in on the merchant vessel and escorted it to safety. In the wake of several incidents of merchant vessels coming under attack from pirates, India has on October 23 decided to deploy her warship in the Gulf of Aden on patrol duties with a mandate to intervene if any Indian vessel was in distress.

The decision came after pirates hijacked a Japanese vessel, M V Stolt Valor, in the same area and took the ship with 18 Indian sailors on board to a Somalian port on September 15 this year. For the last two months, the Indian sailors from Stolt Valor have been held hostage by the Somalian pirates, who have been demanding a ransom.

The Japanese shipping company has been holding negotiations with the pirates to secure the sailors' release, even as there were demands from their family members that Indian government should intervene and get them to safety. In fact, India has identified that a large number of sea pirates were operating from the seaports of Eyl and Hobyo in Somalia and is closely monitoring movements of pirates in the area, Navy sources said.
A sizable portion of India's trade flows through the Gulf of Aden and there has been a quantum increase in the number of piracy attacks in the region over the last few months. Navy sources said these patrols by a warship are being carried out in coordination with the Shipping Ministry and are intended to protect Indian merchant vessels from being attacked by pirates and to instil confidence in the large sea-faring community from India.

[EDSON]

12/11/2008 - 17h26
Navios russo e britânico impedem novo ataque de piratas da Somália
Moscou, 12 nov (EFE).- A patrulheira russa "Neustrashimi" e a fragata britânica "Cumberland" impediram hoje um novo ataque dos piratas da Somália no Golfo de Áden, agora contra um navio da Dinamarca.

Segundo uma nota oficial da Marinha russa, os piratas abriram fogo contra o navio dinamarquês "Powerfull" e tentaram invadir a embarcação duas vezes, sem sucesso. A ação contou ainda com dois helicópteros, um de cada país.

A tripulação do "Powerfull", de propriedade de uma firma dinamarquesa, mas que navega sob bandeira das Bahamas, inclui 15 marinheiros russos.

O porta-voz da Marinha russa, Igor Digalo, informou ontem que o "Neustrashimi" escoltaria o navio durante a passagem pelo Golfo de Áden para evitar um ataque dos piratas.

Aparentemente, as autoridades dinamarquesas solicitaram à Rússia que garanta a segurança desse e de outro navio, o "CEC Commander".

No início de outubro, o embaixador da Somália em Moscou afirmou que o Governo de seu país permitiria a ação de navios russos em suas águas contra os piratas, que atacam embarcações que navegam pela costa do Chifre da África.

O diplomata explicou que a Somália queria conceder à Marinha russa um status especial para supervisionar a situação no litoral do país africano.

Na semana passada, um cargueiro dinamarquês foi seqüestrado nas águas do Golfo de Áden, perto da Somália, com 11 russos, um lituano e um georgiano a bordo.

Este caso aumenta para 81 o número de embarcações atacadas este ano na África. Onze delas ainda estão nas mãos dos piratas, que mantêm detidos mais de 200 membros de suas tripulações.

Entre os navios que continuam em poder das piratas está o cargueiro ucraniano "Faina", cuja tripulação é formada por dois russos, 17 ucranianos e um letão. O capitão do navio, o russo Vladimir Kolobkov, morreu vítima de um ataque do coração.

O cargueiro, cujos movimentos são observados atentamente por navios da Marinha dos Estados Unidos, transportava mais de 30 tanques e muita munição quando foi capturado.

As águas do Golfo de Áden são consideradas as mais perigosas do mundo, junto às da Nigéria. Em junho, o Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas adotou uma resolução que autoriza os navios de guerra estrangeiros a perseguirem os piratas, mas desde que eles recebam o sinal verde das autoridades da Somália.

[LM]

Navy shoots pirate suspects dead

The Royal Navy has repelled a pirate attack on a Danish cargo-ship off the coast of Yemen, shooting dead two men believed to be Somali pirates.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the incident took place on Tuesday, when HMS Cumberland crew members tried to board a traditional wooden dhow.

The Yemeni-flagged vessel was identified as having been involved in an earlier attack on the Danish ship

An MoD spokesman said the pirates were shot in self-defence.

After initial attempts to stop the dhow failed, the Royal Navy launched sea boats to encircle the vessel.

The British seamen were fired on and shot back before the dhow was boarded and its crew surrendered.


Third death

An MoD Spokesman said: "Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self-defence.

"A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship's doctor.

"It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the fire-fight or a previous incident involving the pirates."

A post-shooting investigation is being carried out, the spokesman added.

Details of the incident emerged when Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo revealed the frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless), from its Baltic Sea Fleet, had also tried to rescue the Danish vessel MV Powerful.
HMS Cumberland is taking part in Nato anti-piracy operations

He said the two warships repelled the attempted raid after the pirates fired weapons at the Danish ship and twice tried to board it.

There has been a rise in attacks on merchant shipping and aid shipments in the area.

The boarding took place 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni coast, inside the Maritime Security Patrol Area.

The MoD said the boarding operation was conducted "in accordance with UK Rules of Engagement".

Pirates have been causing havoc in one of the world's busiest shipping areas, making the waters off the Horn of Africa some of the world's most dangerous.

The pirates prey on one of the world's key shipping routes, which leads to the Suez Canal, the transit point for up to a third of the world's oil.


Rocket grenades

Pirates have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year, twice as many as last year, with the ransoms paid to them by governments or ship-owners far higher than in previous years.

The pirates are equipped with speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

They have taken millions of dollars in ransoms and their actions have led to a hike in insurance costs for shipping and threatened humanitarian supplies.

A Turkish-flagged tanker with a 14-man crew became the latest victim of the pirates when it was hijacked off Yemen on Wednesday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Last month, a maritime watchdog said that Somali pirates were responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships.

Origem: BBC News

[P44]

Saudi oil supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates
09:45 | 18/ 11/ 2008



MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - A Saudi oil tanker has been seized by pirates in the Indian Ocean off the Kenyan coast, the largest vessel ever to be hijacked in the region, the U.S. Navy said.

The Sirius Star owned by Saudi Aramco was bound for the U.S., and was seized on Sunday about 830 km southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. The hijacking was reported by the Navy on Monday and confirmed by the company.

The South Korean-made supertanker is carrying up to 2 million barrels of crude, equivalent to a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output.

The crew includes citizens of Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, and is currently heading for the Somali port of Eyl.

Somali pirates have attacked around 83 ships so far this year, resulting in the seizure of around 33 vessels, including 200 crew members. The East African nation has been without a functioning government since 1991 and has no navy to police its coastline.

The Russian frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) recently joined an international naval group that has surrounded a Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, seized by Somali pirates on September 25. The Faina's Russian captain died of a heart attack after the vessel was seized.

The Russian frigate prevented on Sunday the seizure of the Rabikh vessel flying the Saudi flag by pirates off Somalia's coast.

http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20081118/118366856.html




The Sirius Star tanker, shown here conducting a trial run off the coast of South Korea, was invaded by Somali pirates 450 nautical miles off the coast of Kenya.

[eligioep]

E os piratas continuam atacando....cadê os navios da Força Multinacional?!?!

[P44]

Petroleiro seqüestrado está ancorado na costa somali
Publicada em 18/11/2008 às 11h40m
Reuters

BOSASSO, Somália - O navio-tanque saudita seqüestrado com um carregamento de petróleo no valor de US$ 100 milhões, no maior caso de pirataria marítima já registrado, poderia estar ancorado na costa da Somália, disse nesta terça-feira a Saudi Aramco, gigante petrolífera estatal saudita.

"Acredita-se que todos os 25 tripulantes a bordo estejam em segurança", disse a Vela Internacional em um comunicado. "Agora, a Vela espera obter mais contato com os piratas que controlam o navio."

Segundo a Vela, há dois britânicos, dois poloneses, um croata, um saudita e 19 filipinos no navio.

A Vela opera a Sirius Star, que é de propriedade da Aramco. O navio, que tem capacidade para transportar 2 milhões de barris de petróleo, foi sequestrado por piratas somalis no fim de semana.

A pirataria tem elevado o custo dos seguros, além de obrigar algumas embarcações a contornarem toda a África em vez de usarem o canal de Suez, elevando os gastos com frete. Os piratas já obtiveram milhões de dólares em resgates nos últimos anos, e agora realizaram um dos ataques mais ousados e espetaculares da história marítima.

O navio Sirius Star, que ia da Arábia Saudita para os EUA pelo sul da África, foi capturado cerca de 450 milhas náuticas a sudeste do porto queniano de Mombaça, muito distante do Golfo de Áden, cenário mais habitual desses ataques.

A captura também aconteceu apesar de uma resposta naval na região, incluindo da Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte (Otan) e da União Européia, para proteger uma das mais importantes rotas marítimas do mundo. Navios de guerra dos Estados Unidos, da França e da Rússia também estão na área.

A Vela não especificou onde o Sirius Star está ancorado. Andrew Mwangyra, coordenador da Associação de Marinheiros do Leste da África, havia dito que o navio poderia estar na costa de Eyl, vilarejo que é fortaleza dos piratas, na província semi-autônoma de Puntland.

- O mundo nunca viu algo assim(...) Os piratas somalis tiraram a sorte grande - disse Mwangura, cujo grupo monitora a pirataria há anos.

Uma pessoa ligada à pirataria em Eyl, que diz que seu nome é "Bashir", foi contactada pela Reuters por telefone. Ele disse que o navio estava a caminho da costa, mas não pôde especificar onde. Segundo ele, o navio pode parar ao sul de Eyl.

[LM]

Esta situação (e outras em vários locais do mundo, presente e futuro próximo...) resolve-se em terra com regularização da autoridade (1) e no mar com mais navios a vigiar - mas navios tipo OPV e não fragatas muito evoluidas e caras de operar...

Um artigo interessante (apesar de que podia ter desenvolvido mais a alteração do Bofors 40mm/L60 para o planeado o 30mm "Typhoon"):

Os Navios de Patrulha Oceânica e os conflitos assimétricos no Mar


(1) Claro que o Norte de Africa até à invasão francesa no século XIX tinha autoridade e esta organizava o corso de estado...

[EDSON]

18/11/2008 - 15h55
Piratas capturam cargueiro com 36 mil toneladas de trigo
Publicidade
colaboração para a Folha Online

Um cargueiro de Hong Kong carregado com 36 mil toneladas de trigo foi capturado por piratas no golfo de Áden, na costa do Iêmen, informou nesta terça-feira o Centro de Investigação e Resgate Marítimo da China. Ao sul da região, foi seqüestrado no fim de semana o superpetroleiro saudita "Sirius Star".

O navio que navegava sob bandeira chinesa, chamado "Delight", levava a bordo uma tribulação de 25 pessoas quando foi atacado, enquanto se dirigia ao porto de Bandar Abbas, no Irã, segundo o centro marítimo, citado pela agência chinesa de notícias Xinhua.

Arte Folha Online



Nenhum dos tripulantes é de Hong Kong ou da China continental, informou a agência de notícias estatal, sem especificar a nacionalidade dos reféns.

O novo seqüestro foi confirmado pela 5ª Frota da Marinha americana, sediada em Bahrein. Os americanos, forças da Otan (Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte) e da União Européia tentam sem sucesso dar segurança aos navios na região, alvos de freqüentes ataques de piratas sediados na Somália.

O golfo de Áden fica entre o Oceano Índico e o Mar Vermelho, e é rota obrigatória para os navios que seguem a caminho do Mar Vermelho para atravessar o canal de Suez e chegar ao Mediterrâneo.

Rotina de ataques

Os ataques piratas na região do Chifre da África tornaram-se uma preocupação mundial este ano, com o aumento de 75% dos casos na costa da Somália, segundo o Escritório Marítimo Internacional.

Piratas aproveitam a situação de caos causada pela disputa militar entre o governo da Somália e rebeldes islâmicos para transformar parte da costa do país em refúgio.

Atualmente, há dezenas navios seqüestrados, com mais de 200 tripulantes reféns. Como os seqüestradores estão bem armados, com metralhadoras, granadas e lançadores de foguetes, as forças estrangeiras na área evitam o confronto direto, enquanto os proprietários negociam o pagamento de resgates.

Com France Presse e Associated Press

[Bolovo]

Tá fogo por esses lados, heim? Imaginem pegaram um navio brasileiro, qual seria a reação do governo?

[P44]

olha os indianos!

Indian frigate sinks pirate ship off Somalia coast
10:21 | 19/ 11/ 2008




MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - An Indian frigate has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden after coming under attack, the Indian Navy said on Wednesday.

"The pirates fired at the INS Tabar, which is patrolling the waters off the Somali coast. The ship retaliated and sank the pirate vessel," an Indian Navy official said.

The Times of India said the pirate ship, accompanied by several speed boats, was sunk when it attempted to ram the Tabar. No casualties have been reported on board the Indian warship. It is not clear what happened to the pirates after their ship was sunk.

Indian military vessels were dispatched to the Gulf of Aden on October 3. On November 11, the Tabar thwarted an attempt by pirates to capture the M V Jag Arnav, an Indian merchant vessel.

Despite a large international naval presence in the region, at least two more seizures have been reported today. Pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat with 16 crew members onboard and a Greek bulk carrier.

Somali pirates are currently holding at least 17 vessels, including the Saudi Arabian supertanker MV Sirius Star, which was seized on Tuesday hundreds of miles off the coast of Kenya in the most brazen attack by Somali pirates. The supertanker could hold up to 25% of Saudi Arabia's daily oil output, and the seizure caused world oil prices to rise slightly after the news was announced.

Pirates have attacked around 83 ships so far this year, resulting in the seizure of around 33 vessels, including 200 crew members. The East African nation has been without a functioning government since 1991 and has no navy to police its coastline.

The Russian frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) recently joined an international naval group that has surrounded a Ukrainian ship, the MV Faina, seized by Somali pirates on September 25. The Faina's Russian captain died of a heart attack after the vessel was seized.

The Russian frigate prevented on Sunday the seizure of the Rabikh vessel, flying the Saudi flag, by pirates off Somalia's coast.

http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20081119/118392353.html

[manuel.liste]

Disparar a uma fragata... estão a ganhar ousadia

[LM]

guardian.co.uk November 19 2008

All at sea
How did a mere bunch of Somali pirates manage to hijack one of the world's biggest supertankers? All too easily, say industry insiders. The spoils are huge, the crews unarmed, and the shipowners themselves curiously uninterested in stopping them. By Jon Henley

The Sirius Star is one of the world's newest, and biggest, supertankers. Like other modern Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), it cost about $150m to build and measures around 330m from bow to stern, or nearly twice as long as the 41-storey building at, 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin, is tall. It is, in the words of Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Naval Forces Fifth Fleet, roughly three times the size of an aircraft carrier.

So how come a vessel whose cargo is so substantial that its loss can cause the world oil price to jump by more than a dollar fall prey to a ragged band of Somali pirates who, in all probability, scrambled on board from a couple of fast launches? How could one of the biggest man-made objects on earth become the victim of yet another hijacking in the waters off east Africa, an area that has witnessed more than 90 such incidents this year alone (and which yesterday witnessed another, in the shape of a Hong Kong freighter called the Delight)?

The short answer is: easily. Contrary to what many imagine, the deck of a fully charged VLCC will be barely 3.5 metres above the waterline. After hitching a ride on a similar vessel from Saudi Arabia to Singapore for his book on modern-day piracy, Dangerous Waters, the author and former merchant seaman John Burnett wrote: "Could pirates take over a ship this huge, this important? On a VLCC you are above the world; the idea of being boarded and attacked by pirates seems ludicrous and on this voyage I shared with the captain his sense of invincibility ..."

But, the captain conceded and Burnett somewhat prophetically concluded, "laden with crude oil, it will be easy for pirates to take over this ship. They will come up from behind within the shadow of radar coverage and, attacking from the stern, the lowest point of the ship, they will throw their grappling hooks over the railings and scamper up the sides. Anyone standing on the bow of a fishing boat or a large speedboat could be up and over the railing of a VLCC in seconds. Perhaps we are not so invincible after all. Perhaps it is only a matter of time."

It gives Burnett no particular pleasure to have predicted precisely the fate of the Sirius Star more than five years ago. But piracy is widespread and, in some regions, very much on the rise. According to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which collates the figures for both attempted and successful hijacks, there were 264 piracy attacks around the world in 2007. By September this year there had been 199. Many take place in what has up until now been considered the most dangerous area: the South China Sea, and the Malacca Strait between Indonesia and Malaysia. But the fastest-growing area is the Gulf of Aden, off wartorn and lawless Somalia and its breakaway region of Puntland, where the number of attacks doubled to 60 in 2007 and has soared to 92 so far this year.

The Somali brand of piracy is different to that practised in south-east Asia, says Peter Newton, a captain with the Danish shipping line Maersk, who was the victim of an attack in the early 1990s. "We were out of Singapore, bound for New Zealand," he recalls, "and well out of the area where we were considered at risk of a pirate attack, so I'd stood down the anti-piracy precautions we had in place as a matter of course. I'd just gone back down to my cabin and a couple of minutes later they simply walked in. It was a bit of a surprise."

Newton's first thought, he says, was that the crew had mutinied. "They were dressed in balaclavas, armed with machete-type knives, and their leader at least spoke excellent English," he says. "In fact, they were basically interested just in robbing me and the ship's safe. The whole thing was over in about 30 minutes. They slapped me around a bit and forced me to open the safe, which had an anti-tamper device fitted that, if it had been set, would have triggered an alarm. They made it perfectly clear they would shoot me if that happened. Fortunately, it didn't."

Newton reckons the vast majority of pirate robberies, particularly in south-east Asia, are not even reported. "No shipping company likes to advertise that they've been the subject of an attack," he says, "because it's bad for their image. Plus, they're not even really bothered. The attack on my vessel netted a grand total of $24,000. The ship itself costs around $50,000 a day to charter."

Somalia is a different story. The Somali gangs, armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers and operating often from a "mother ship" from which they launch fast, high-powered skiffs, are interested not so much in robbery as ransom. Of the 90-plus attacks carried out so far this year, 36 were hijackings. Around 500 crew members have been taken hostage and an estimated $30m paid out in ransom for the captured ships, their cargo, officers and crew. One of the most spectacular operations was against a luxury French three-masted yacht, Le Ponant, whose 32 passengers and crew were taken captive (and eventually ransomed) in April. At least 14 vessels are thought still to be held. And the pirates seem undeterred by a couple of high-profile operations by French special forces, or the presence in the area of a multinational task force including American, Russian, Danish and British warships.

In that, says writer Adrian Tinniswood, who is writing a book on the Barbary coast corsairs of the 17th century, they are descended pretty much in a direct line from their forebears. While the corsairs operated from modern-day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and although many of the most fearsome among them were actually renegade Europeans (including a

particularly notorious and bloodthirsty captain called Yusuf Rais, who was actually a fisherman from Faversham by the name of John Ward), "they used very much the same tactics", says Tinniswood.

"Like their modern equivalents, the Barbary coast pirates relied on fast boats and fear to overcome their prey," he adds. "Their aim, of course, was to capture the cargoes and sell, rather than ransom, the crew, which was a considerably worse fate. Not a lot of people know that in the 17th century one million Europeans were sold into slavery in Africa; the vast majority had been captured by pirates. More than 150 English ships were hijacked, and James I went so far as to call the Barbary corsairs 'the common enemy of mankind'."

This is the first time, though, that today's pirates have attacked anything as vast as a VLCC, or indeed any vessel quite so far from their home bases - the Sirius Star was several hundred miles out to sea, about 450 miles from the Kenyan port of Mombasa. Jim Wilson, Middle East correspondent of the shipping weekly Fairplay, says the attack "marks a significant step up in the confidence and capability of Somali pirates to attack shipping. It may also mark the effect of increased anti-pirate naval activity in the Gulf of Aden". Commodore Keith Winstanley, deputy commander of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in the Middle East, told the magazine: "It's inconceivable that [the CMF] can be everywhere. The pirates will go somewhere we are not. If we patrol the Gulf of Aden then they will go to Mogadishu. If we go to Mogadishu, they will go to the Gulf of Aden."

Burnett, for one, is not surprised. "The great fallacy is that because ships this size are nine storeys tall, they're impregnable," he says. "In fact, they're sitting ducks. These are the softest targets, the lowest-hanging fruit of the whole of world maritime commerce."

Newton agrees. "The thing about a VLCC," he says, "is that its size actually lets it down because it's so slow. This vessel was probably only doing about 15 knots, which would have made it easy prey for almost any reasonably speedy launch. Once they've reached it, it's a relatively easy task to board because the freeboard is so low. What impresses me, though, is the fact that they found it: they'd obviously been tracking it electronically, because succeeding in making a rendezvous with another vessel in open sea so far offshore is exceptionally difficult."

Once they had located and approached it, though, Newton says, the Sirius Star would have been considered "pretty much a risk-free operation" by the pirates. First, he says, the crew would not have put up a fight. "Maybe a European professional crew might have tried, but the pirates know full well that a civilian crew from the Philippines, from Russia or Croatia will not really resist. They'd be the first to admit that they are only there because they can earn more money at sea than they can at home; they'll have little or no appetite for a struggle."

Nor, even if the crew of a supertanker was attempting to guard against a pirate attack, could it actually do so. The Sirius Star, with its crew of 25, would have probably six deckhands, Newton points out. "Assuming one guy can be expected to survey maybe a 100-metre stretch of deck, on a carrier the size of this your entire deck crew would be permanently engaged in looking out for a possible attack," he says. "That's plainly impractical."

The suggestion, floated in the wake of the latest hijacking, that crews might in future be armed is equally unworkable, Newton argues. "Carrying weapons is very, very problematic. If I'm on board ship I'm bound by exactly the same rules and laws as you are in an office in London. We can't carry knives or any other kind of weapon. The problem is, if you're an armed security guard on land you're not going to find yourself in a different country in a few weeks' time. Can you imagine a merchant ship arriving in a foreign port with half its crew armed to the teeth? It's just not going to happen."

Against an increasingly professional and determined foe, then, what is the answer? Jonathan Davies, senior security instructor at the Maersk Training Centre, has taught a course called Spar - Surviving Piracy and Armed Robbery - for the past three years, and says his sessions are currently "extremely well subscribed: the problem with piracy is becoming more and more significant. It's becoming an extremely alarming problem."

As well as giving seafarers the psychological tools to reduce post-traumatic stress following any eventual attack, Davies says standard advice on avoiding one includes manoeuvring the ship rapidly and, if possible, unpredictably (difficult when, as in the case of a VLCC, it can take minutes between a command being given on the bridge and the vessel actually changing direction); operating the ship's fire hoses, basically to "dissuade pirates from boarding by demonstrating that the crew is alert"; deploying search and deck lights with a similar aim; and even "swamping the would-be boarders' boat".

But ultimately, industry insiders concede, it is extremely difficult for any ship to avoid an attack by well-armed, well-prepared, resolute attackers. "It's down to the captain, really," says one expert who asked not to be named. "If it's a tanker with a low freeboard, the attackers can basically step on board. If it's a container vessel or a roll-on roll-off, higher in the water, they may say: unless you heave to, we will shoot. So the captain has to think, for example, how many shots is he prepared to take. He has to consider not just the safety of his crew, but also the safety of his cargo. If he's carrying flammable product, any shots at all might be catastrophic. And of course certain kinds of cargo could trigger an ecological disaster."

A major part of the problem, says Newton, is that the shipowners themselves are curiously uninterested. "They're fully covered by insurance," he says. "Even if, heaven forbid, a crew member is killed, there'll be a $5,000 life insurance payout which will be something like 20 times the average annual salary in the Philippines. " There are certainly measures they could take: "You can install CCTV on deck," says Newton. "You can fit special radar equipment to pick small craft coming in from astern - normal radar looks forward, of course, which is why it misses most pirate launches. You could even look at forming convoys of vessels with a naval escort, although that would be horrendously complicated and prohibitively expensive."

Eventually, the experts believe, the insurance companies will force some kind of change. Premiums in the Gulf of Aden have increased tenfold in recent months, and at some stage, Newton says, "Lloyds of London will go to the government and say, look, something really has to be done". At present, however, no one in the shipping community seems to have any idea of what that something might be other than destroying the pirates' infrastructure and, if necessary, killing or capturing the pirates themselves. Burnett is even more pessimistic, believing the only long-term and lasting solution will be "a stable and bona fide" government in Somalia. Which is not what you might call around the corner.

Ver também Life is sweet in piracy capital of the world

[Rui Elias Maltez]

Piratas guardam superpetroleiro e sequestram mais um cargueiro


SUSANA SALVADOR / http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/11/19/internacional/

Somália. Navio saudita está ancorado junto ao porto de Harardere

"Pesco nestas águas há mais de três décadas, mas nunca tinha visto um navio tão grande como este." A admiração de um pescador somali ao vislumbrar o superpetroleiro saudita Sirius Star, ancorado junto ao porto de Harardere, não é de estranhar: nunca os piratas que operam ao largo da costa da Somália tinham conseguido sequestrar um navio desta dimensão. Mas bater recordes não é suficiente para estes grupos, que ontem capturaram outro navio: um cargueiro de Hong Kong, o Delight, com 36 mil toneladas de trigo.

"Isto não tem precedentes. É o maior barco alguma vez atacado por piratas", disse o porta-voz da V Frota da marinha norte-americana, tenente Nathan Christensen. O superpetroleiro tem 330 metros de comprimento e pesa 318 toneladas: "Tem três vezes o tamanho de um porta- aviões." A bordo levava dois milhões de barris de petróleo - um quarto da produção diária da Arábia Saudita, no valor de cem milhões de dólares.

O Sirius Star, propriedade de uma filial da companhia saudita Aramco mas de bandeira da Libéria, dirigia-se para os EUA quando foi atacado ao largo da costa do Quénia. "A nossa primeira e mais importante prioridade é a segurança da tripulação", referiu a Vela International Marine Lda., num comunicado. A bordo seguiam 19 filipinos, dois britânicos, dois polacos (um deles o capitão), um croata e um saudita.

"A pirataria, como o terrorismo, é uma doença que atinge todo o mundo", disse o ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros de Riad, Saud al-Faiçal. "É uma coisa muito perigosa e felizmente estão a ser empreendidas iniciativas internacionais para lhe fazer face", acrescentou, sem adiantar o que é que o Governo vai fazer. Não há planos para empreender uma operação militar.

Uma força naval internacional da NATO está a operar na região desde finais de Agosto, devendo ser substituída já no próximo mês por uma operação da União Europeia. Agindo sob mandato das Nações Unidas, em aplicação da resolução 1816 contra a pirataria, esta será constituída por pelo menos sete navios, com o apoio de aviões de patrulha. Um navio italiano, um grego e um britânico já estão nas águas do golfo de Áden desde finais de Outubro.

O chefe de Estado-Maior Interarmas americano, o almirante Michael Mullen, disse estar "surpreendido" com o raio de acção dos piratas que, pressionados, estão a atacar cada vez mais longe da costa. "Eles são muito bons no que querem. Estão muito bem armados. Tacticamente são muito bons", acrescentou. "Assim que conseguem subir a bordo torna-se muito difícil afastá-los porque, evidentemente, eles ficam com reféns."

Assim que conseguem capturar os navios, os atacantes levam-nos para os portos de Harardere, Eyl e Hobyo, que servem de base aos distintos grupos de piratas. A pirataria é uma actividade muito lucrativa - em média o resgate é de dois milhões de euros, num país entregue ao caos desde o início de uma guerra civil, em 1991. Os ataques nesta região representam um terço dos actos de pirataria registados este ano, segundo o Gabinete Marítimo Internacional.

______________________________

Embarcação capturada há dois meses
Piratas somalis libertam cargueiro de Hong Kong "MV Great Creation"

19.11.2008 - 11h53 AFP / http://ultimahora.publico.clix.pt/noticia.aspx

Os piratas somalis libertaram hoje um cargueiro de Hong Kong, o "MV Great Creation", e a sua tripulação com 25 pessoas, que havia sido capturado há dois meses, anunciou o responsável por uma organização marítima queniana. Hoje foi pedido o resgate para libertar uma outra embarcação, o superpetroleiro "Sirius Star".

"Os piratas libertaram o 'Great Creation' esta manhã e, neste momento, está a caminho de Abu Dhabi", disse Andrew Mwangura, responsável por um programa de assistência marítima, com sede na cidade portuária de Mombasa.

O "MV Great Creation" foi capturado a 18 de Setembro. A sua tripulação é composta por 24 cidadãos da China e um do Sri Lanka.

Piratas pedem resgate para libertar "Sirius Star"

Segundo a televisão Al-Jazira, do Qatar, os piratas pediram hoje um resgate para libertar o superpetroleiro "Sirius Star" e os seus 25 tripulantes, capturado a 15 de Novembro no Oceano Índico.

"Há negociadores a bordo do navio e em terra. Assim que derem o seu acordo ao resgate, este será encaminhado até ao petroleiro", disse um homem identificado como Farah Abd Jameh. "Faremos a contagem do dinheiro mecanicamente", acrescentou, avisando que os piratas têm "os equipamentos necessários para identificar as notas falsas".

Os proprietários do "Sirius Star", o gigante petrolífero saudita Aramco, recusou comentar o pedido de resgate.

O superpetroleiro está ancorado num porto da área de Haradhere, 300 quilómetros a norte de Mogadíscio. Harardere é um dos portos utilizados pelos piratas somalis para guardar os barcos que capturaram, enquanto aguardam os resgates que exigiram para os libertar.

Ontem, um navio de guerra indiano a operar no Golfo de Áden respondeu a um ataque de piratas ao largo das costas da Somália, segundo um porta-voz da Marinha indiana.

Desde o início do ano, 92 navios foram atacados por piratas somalis no Golfo de Áden e no Oceano Índico.