UN urged to impose blockade against Somali pirates

KUALA LUMPUR: Maritime groups on Monday called on the United Nations to mount an international naval blockade to halt the surge of piracy off Somalia.
     
At a regional conference on maritime safety, they also called for clear rules of engagement that would allow foreign navies to intercept and prosecute pirates who are operating with impunity in the Gulf of Aden.
     
"Maybe we should have the UN coordinating naval action off Somalia. It could impose a blockade along the Somali coast," said Peter Swift of the London-based International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko).
     
Swift said that if the attacks are not stopped, there will be a serious effect on world trade, 90 per cent of which travels by sea.
     
"It will have an impact on global trade if we do not have a solution quickly. The situation is getting worse. We need urgent action," he said.
     
"It is very difficult to see how it is going to stop."
     
"We have asked (the UN) for a long time for naval support for merchant shipping to protect the seafarers and world trade," he said, adding they had requested naval help and aerial patrols.
     
"They should have clear rules of engagement which allow them to intercept pirates and to take appropriate action that might be neutralising mother ships and certainly intervening to protect the merchant ships."
     
Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Tokyo-based Nippon Foundation, which lobbies for safer shipping, also called for an escalation of the response to pirates, whose attacks have dramatically increased in recent months.