Ships With Armed Guards Seen Not Reporting Somali Pirate Strikes
Some ship operators hiring private armed guards to protect their vessels from hijack by Somali pirates aren’t reporting attempted attacks, the London-based International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center said.
Following are comments from Pottengal Mukundan, the bureau’s director, at the Hanson Wade Combating Piracy conference in London yesterday:
“Vessels with private armed security are not reporting the attempted attacks that other vessels were reporting before. There could be many reasons for this, it could be that they fear liability or simply the owners themselves have got clauses in their contracts which prevent any reporting of attempted attacks. This is very sad.
‘‘If there is an attempted attack, that information about that pirate skiff is vital to the next vessel coming down that area.
‘‘Until recently there were a lot more free reports coming out and at the moment we feel that the reports are being suppressed. We need to find a way if people are afraid of liability or other such factors, for that information to be made available.’’
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