The first regional agreement between Arab and African countries oncombating piracy has been signed in Djibouti at a special meetingorganized by the International Maritime Organization. The agreement resembles another multinational regional dealstruck in 2005 to fight piracy in Southeast Asia.
Nine countriesin the region affected by piracy - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya,Madagascar, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, and Yemen- signed an agreement Thursday to cooperate in preventing shiphijackings and apprehending suspected pirates for arrest andprosecution.
The Djibouti Code of Conduct - as the agreementis referred to - allows one signatory country to send armed forces intoanother signatory country's territorial waters to pursue pirates and,in some cases, to jointly conduct anti-piracy operations. The nationshave also agreed on the creation of piracy information centers to beset up in Kenya, Tanzania, and Yemen, and an anti-piracy militarytraining center to be established in Djibouti.
The Code ofConduct calls on member states to enact new laws or change existinglegislation to facilitate the arrest and prosecution of suspectedpirates. The regional coordinator of the International MaritimeOrganization, John Muindi, says a temporary solution has been suggestedto give governments time to act.
"If there is one countrywithout relevant laws, then the one with [relevant laws] canprosecute. But the IMO is insisting the countries come up with theirown legislation," he explained.
In developing a mechanism to fight piracy inthe Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, the IMO followed the model ofanother regional government-to-government anti-piracy agreement, whichwent into effect almost three years ago.
The agreement, calledthe Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and ArmedRobbery against Ships in Asia, has more than a dozen signatories and iscredited with helping reduce the number of successful pirate attacks inthe Malacca Straits.
The IMO says the sharing of piracy-relatedinformation through the Singapore-based Information Sharing Center is agood example of successful regional cooperation that could be easilyreplicated.
But according to reports from the InternationalMaritime Bureau, the piracy problem in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf ofAden has grown far larger and more complicated than in Asia.
Lastyear, pirates attacked more than 110 vessels off the coast of Somalia,successfully hijacking 42 ships and crew, including an oil-ladensupertanker and a freighter loaded with Russian tanks and other arms. The United Nations estimates that pirates also earned more than $100million in ransom money, driving up shipping and insurance costs torecord levels.
The worsening situation has prompted more thana dozen countries, including the United States, China, Russia, India,Iran and countries in the European Union, to send warships to patrolthe region. But the intervention has had limited success because thereare no international laws or treaties that can be used to determine thefate of pirates arrested by foreign navies outside of Somali waters.
TheDjibouti Code of Conduct is viewed as one of the first steps towardfinding a way to transfer pirates to stand trial in a near-by country.