Non-Traditional Security Issues and the South China Sea by Wu Shicun;Zou Keyuan;Wu Dr Shicun;Zou Professor Keyuan; & Keyuan Zou

Author:Wu, Shicun;Zou, Keyuan;Wu, Dr Shicun;Zou, Professor Keyuan; & Keyuan Zou
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2014-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Enhancing Regional Cooperation on Piracy and Maritime Crimes

Robert Beckman and Tara Davenport

Introduction

Attacks against vessels committed by Somali nationals in the Horn of Africa have dominated headlines for the past two years primarily because of the audacity and purpose of these attacks, namely to kidnap the crew and hijack vessels for ransom.1 The ramifications of these attacks are significant, not only in terms of the unimaginable anxiety of crew members and their families but also in terms of costs to ship owners, cargo owners, insurers and coastal States in the region.2

The purpose of this chapter is to examine ways in which States in South East Asia and East Asia can co-operate to address these more serious attacks against vessels involving kidnap of crew and ship-hijacking. While the majority of attacks against vessels in waters in South East Asia3 are predominantly acts of robbery, of either the ship’s cash, valuables, stores, cargo and equipment,4 there have been incidents, although relatively infrequent, of both kidnap of crew and ship-hijacking. For example, in 2009, there were three incidents of kidnapping of crew, one in the Straits of Malacca5 and two off Philippines waters.6 The kidnappings occurred after the vessels were robbed and it is unclear whether ransom was demanded in these cases.

There was one incident of hijacking in 2009 in the South China Sea7 and three incidents of ship hijacking in the first quarter of 2010, namely of the tug ASTA north of Tioman, Malaysia, the tug PU 2007 off Kuantan, Malaysia and the tug ATLANTIC 3, east of Bintan, Indonesia.8 Ship-hijacking in these cases were not committed for ransom but for purposes of re-selling the vessel. As this type of attack requires detailed planning and organization with the aim of large profits, it is widely believed that criminal syndicates based in Indonesia and Malaysia are behind these hijackings.9 The same criminal syndicate is suspected to be behind the recent hijackings of the ASTA, the PU 2007 and the ATLANTIC 3.10

While it is debatable that attacks against vessels in the region will ever reach the scale and seriousness of the attacks in the Horn of Africa, primarily due to different geopolitical contexts,11 kidnap for ransom and ship hijacking are serious crimes that may involve several jurisdictions and involve significant economic losses to ship owners, cargo owners, insurers and coastal States as well as a risk to the lives of crew. States in the region should learn lessons from Somalia, namely, the need for an effective legal framework for the apprehension, prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of these attacks.12

While the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (“UNCLOS”) is prima facie the applicable legal framework governing kidnapping of crew and hijacking of ships on the basis that these acts can, in certain circumstances, fall under the UNCLOS definition of piracy,13 this paper aims to demonstrate that the 1988 Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (“SUA Convention”), the 1979 Convention against the Taking of Hostages

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