New Delhi
10 April 2011
Portugal, which will head European Union's anti-piracy mission codenamed
Operation Atalanta rpt Atalanta in the Gulf of Aden this week, shares India's views on the
need for a stronger international response under the United Nations banner to combat
the problem of piracy off the Horn of Africa.
Jorge Roza de Oliveira, Portugal's new ambassador to India, told this newspaper that
the "present arrangement does not go far enough" as the rules of engagement were
limited in scope, and, therefore, the "international community should do a bit more [in
the] UN context".
The envoy's remarks came on the eve of a UN security council (UNSC) vote on a
resolution spelling out measures for trial of pirates in Seychelles and their imprisonment
in prisons in the Somaliland and Puntland regions of Somalia.
Portugal and India are non-permanent members of the UNSC today. On or about April 14,
a Portuguese frigate named Vasco da Gama will assume command of the European
naval force (EU NAVFOR) in Djibouti, bordering Somalia. The EU NAVFOR operation
liaises with the navies of India and other countries operating in the region.
New Delhi hopes that the latest resolution to be voted on this week will make it
incumbent on the UN member-states to frame appropriate laws and to take responsibility
for securing the release of hostages captured by pirates from any ship registered in any
country.
According to Chitrapu Uday Bhaskar, the director of New Delhi-based National Maritime
Foundation and a retired Indian Navy commodore, tackling piracy is a complex issue
because the legal provisions are very tangled. "A reason is that today a merchant ship
may be owned by one entity, registered in another country, the crew will be drawn from
different nationalities, therefore, different kinds of legislation are applicable. Hence, [the]
ability to do something is limited," he explained.
On June 2, 2008, the UNSC unanimously passed the Resolution 1816 permitting the
nations cooperating with Somalia's Transitional Federal Government to send their
navies into Somalia's territorial waters to combat acts of piracy and armed robbery at
sea using all necessary means. For India, the issue of piracy acquired the equivalent of
a tipping point in October 2008 when the Indian Navy started anti-piracy operations in the
Gulf of Aden. In the same month, the INS Tabar sank a Somali pirate ship.
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