WARNING! GULF OF ADEN!

The problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden arouses worldwide concern. The area, together with the South China and Caribbean seas and the Strait of Malacca, has the status of "war zone" because of the dangers of navigation there.  Some 300 vessels of different types sail through the area every day. Currently, Somali pirates attack one ship in 10. Although most of their attempts fail, local pirates have recently beaten all records. Last year they seized about 100 ships, and this year the number has already reached 90, of which 12, together with their crews (almost 300 persons) are still held captive. The Kenyan authorities report that Somali pirates received a total of $150 million in ransoms for the vessels and crews they seized in the last 12 months.

In September, the Ukrainian ship Faina was attacked; it was transporting a large cargo of weapons, including 33 T-72 tanks, Shikla air defence systems and grenade launchers for the Ukrainian state company Ukrspetseksport. The pirates asked for $20 million for the release of the crew, vessel and cargo. But today the Faina is blocked by US Navy ships, and talks on the release of the vessel and 20 crew have been under way for almost two months. In this time, the Somali pirates have seized several dozen other vessels, including the Turkish dry-cargo ship Karagel and a Chinese fishing schooner with 24 fishermen aboard.

Incidentally, on 16 November, Somali pirates carried out an action unprecedented in history. The very large Saudi crude carrier Sirius Star was seized in the Indian Ocean. The vessel, which was carrying 2 million barrels of oil to the United States, belonged to one of the largest tanker operators, Vela International (a subsidiary of the Saudi Aramco oil concern). In addition to the valuable cargo, the pirates also seized the 25-man crew of British, Polish, Saudi, Philippino and Croat nationals.

Following this, the international community became gravely concerned about piracy on hydrocarbon transportation routes; this is no less a threat to international security than the actions of Al-Qaida.

"The extent of this action is simply overwhelming," said Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen. Indeed, for the first time in history a huge vessel, whose deck is as large as three football fields, had fallen victim to piracy.

All the military ships in the area of the attack were sent to search for the Sirius Star. The tanker was found near the Somali shore only two days later. US Navy spokesman Nathan Christensen said that the pirates had taken the tanker to an anchorage near the Somali seaport of Harardhere, 300 km north of Mogadishu. It emerged later that the attack on the tanker took only 16 minutes. The only implements used by the pirates to board the ship were simple ropes and hooks.

In the mean time, to the surprise of many, the Islamic rebels in Somalia announced that they would join the fight against the pirates and punish them. A spokesman for the Ash-Shabab group said that the attack on the Muslim-owned Sirius Star supertanker was a serious crime and that his comrades-in-arms would hunt down the culprits. As a result, the first attack on the seaport of Harardher, where the tanker is held, was thwarted. The pirates reacted by concentrating their forces there.

The seizure of the Sirius Star led to changes to the routes of transportation of hydrocarbons. An increasing number of shipping companies refuse to send their vessels to the Gulf of Aden and instead send their tankers south, around the Cape of Good Hope. This route takes five days longer when cargos are shipped from Asia and 10 days longer when they are shipped from the Near East.

Egypt is the country most affected, as the falling number of vessels passing through the Suez Canal means a diminishing income of hard currency. The canal earned Cairo $4.1 billion in the first nine months of this year alone.

The six Arab nations with access to the Red Sea have already held an emergency meeting in Egypt to help create an early warning system for ships in the region.

For now, even the fact that a group of NATO ships convoys the merchant ships through the security corridor and some US Fifth Fleet vessels operate in the area did not help the situation. The ships of the Indian, Russian and some other navies are also on the hunt for pirate boats. And proposals to strengthen international coordination are increasingly frequent.

However, this strategy might also prove ineffective. The attack on the Sirius Star in the Indian Ocean may drive up insurance costs, seamen's salaries and fuel prices.

The insurers might come up with special tariffs for vessels operating in areas of armed conflict and extend the zone itself to the entire length of the route. This means that shipping companies will have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a day in insurance premiums. Currently, governments and shippers cannot agree on who should be responsible for the fight against the pirates. Hiring armed guards to convoy cargoes proved to be too expensive. For example, the services of licensed guards may cost up to $60,000 per trip.

The military say that they can provide some degree of maritime security, but only the restoration of law and order in Somalia can fully remove the pirates from these waters -- civil war has been raging in the country for several years now. The Somali government has no control over the shoreline area and the bandits can act with impunity. Accordingly, there is nowhere to extradite arrested pirates to for trial. In recent months, the military has detained some 60 "freebooters." But they were all effectively disarmed and then released.

US Navy representatives themselves admit that protecting the sea routes with their ships alone will be very difficult and urge shipping companies to use private organizations more often.

The attacks on merchant ships off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden have attracted the business attention of major Western security companies. Some sent their guards to defend ships against pirates and even managed to parry an attack on a tanker.

The pirates were deterred using a non-lethal weapon, so-called sonic gun. The device emits a concentrated beam of 186-decibel sound which is effective at distances of up to 1.6 kilometres. Specialists say that at a range under 50 metres, it might deafen the attacker permanently. These devices have been in service with the US Navy for some years.

The Indian Navy achieved some success in their combat with Somali pirates: their latest frigate, Tabar, which was built in Russia, destroyed a pirate vessel.

The military prevented the pirates' attempt to approach a vessel by boat and open fire with grenade launchers. Precisely for this reason, foreign navy ships prefer to avoid direct engagement with the pirates. And the owners of merchant ships have to open talks on a ransom.

In the mean time, the EU announced that, from 8 December, Britain will head an EU international defence group which will use European naval forces to "halt and block pirate activities in the Gulf of Aden."

French Defence Minister Herve Morin said that the European navies will launch the Atlanta operation, by which the 27 EU countries will try to resolve the issue of Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Five or six ships from EU navies will take part in the operation. They will carry out three types of assignments: convoying merchant ships at the request of ship owners and freighters, continuing to convoy UN Food and Agriculture Programme ships which deliver humanitarian aid and conducting operations to establish control over the area with support from naval aircraft. Russian seamen will also take part in the EU operation. The nuclear-powered, missile-carrying cruiser Peter the Great will convoy merchant ships.

It should be noted, however, that the navy ships might encounter legal obstacles in the fight against maritime piracy, because some provisions of international maritime law might considerably constrain the actions of foreign ships in the waters off the horn of Africa. Under international law, military ships of a non-coastal nation have no right to enter the territorial waters where the pirates operate most often.

Although the Somali government did announce that it had issued permits to EU ships to conduct combat operations, this proved insufficient. The UN Security Council helped by adopting Resolution 1816 on 2 June, which, firstly, allows navy ships to enter the territorial waters of Somalia and, secondly, accords a status of so-called "cooperating nation", which can send its forces to combat piracy.

It is no secret that no pirate will fear warships which are under orders not to open fire. And if seamen are to take part in the detention of pirate boats, they should know how they should treat prisoners.

For many decades now, a universally accepted phrase has been used for pirates: "Hostis humani generis" - enemies of mankind. This makes it possible to exercise a so-called universal criminal jurisdiction, which means that, regardless of a pirate's nationality or citizenship and regardless of what flag a pirate vessel flies, any warship of any nation has the right to seize a pirate vessel, pirates and their loot. Pirates can also be tried by the judiciary of the nation which seized them.

However, even Western nations admit that "strong-arm methods" will not help resolve the problem and no country can handle the new scourge of the high seas alone.

After all, the pirate attacks on supertankers and luxury yachts are a revenge of sorts, which the poorest of the poor exact on the wealthier nations whose riches sail by their shores every day. Forgotten and abandoned by the West, neglected in trouble even by the UN, Somalis are now making their living in a way available to them.