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Gulf countries urged to step up drive against piracy: Pieter Bindt

MUSCAT -- This is high time the Gulf countries should step up drive against piracy, said Commodore Pieter Bindt, Force Commander of the European Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR), while briefing journalists onboard HMNLS Evertsen, a Dutch warship that called on port of Muscat on Thursday. Commodore Pieter is commanding the EU Task Force Operations in the Somalian basin and Gulf of Aden. He also hoped the setting up of a Pan Arab task force against piracy in near future.

"This is very important today as the pirates are not only plundering the merchant ships, they are also targeting vessels of the World Food Programme (WFP) delivering Food aid to displaced persons in Somalia," he said. Pieter gave a presentation in which he explained that the piracy threatens the prompt and safe delivery of food aid to 3.7 million Somalians depending on food aid and threatens international maritime trade routes comprising 80 per cent of world and 95 per cent of EU trades.

Gulf countries depend mainly on sea for their major trade transportation and more importantly the transportation of oil, so it is advisable for them to support and join the forces which are fighting the pirates in the Somali basin. Piracy, he said, threatens and disrupts the lives and safety of seafarers and their families, corrupts and disrupts local communities, adds to instability of failed state of Somalia and creates instability in the region.

Commenting on the role of international community in curbing the piracy Pieter said, "Presently there are approximately 27 ships from 16 different nations conducting counter-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. They are part of EU NAVFOR, Nato, CTF 151, or nationally deployed, like Japan, China, India and Saudi Arabia. Piracy and its threat to commerce, regional stability, and freedom of navigation is something that governments worldwide are concerned about."

As of the end of October the chance for a pirate of actually hijacking, a ship, if attacked, is 1 in 9. This is a significant decrease compared to the 1 in 3 in the meteorologically similar period from February 15 until April 15 this year. In the Gulf of Aden the pirate success rate has dropped to 0 per cent. Quoting the International Maritime Bureau's quarterly report on piracy Pieter said: "The activities of the combined naval forces were instrumental in the decrease of piracy and were very, very effective".

Earlier, Major Quentin Oates, Public Affairs Officer at EU Naval Force Operational Headquarters in Northwood, Middlesex (UK), welcomed the Sultanate's continuing assistance, mainly in the form of berthing facilities, to the naval task force. "Oman is a very supportive nation in the provision of berthing arrangements for not only EU Naval Force but other International Naval Coalition forces fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin," he said.

"The Evertsen visit is also an opportunity for the Task Force Commander to share views with the Omani authorities and develop further the relationship between Oman and the EU Naval Force," Maj Oates said. Naval assets from a number of EU countries currently make up the EU Naval Force, which has been conducting a military operation code-named 'Operation Atalanta' to deter and disrupt piracy off the coast of Somalia. Its mandate is to protect World Food Programme (WFP) shipping that moves food from Mombasa to Mogadishu, Bosasso and Berbara on the Somali coastline.

By Kaushalendra S Singh

© Oman Daily Observer 2009