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Terrorist threat stirs Asian
shipping
By Raja M
MUMBAI -
Daniel Tan fears the next big terrorist attack will
occur on the high seas. As secretary general of the
Federation of ASEAN Shipowners' Associations (FASA), Tan
has urged Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
leaders to take joint action against potential attacks
and continued piracy.
The region's economy will
be battered if terrorists strike an oil or chemical
tanker, he warns. Worse, security experts dread
terrorists using a shipping container to smuggle a
weapon of mass destruction such as a nuclear warhead,
or, no pun intended, to deliver one.
Tan's warning comes in the wake of the
United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) issuing
a new International Ship and Port Facility
Security Code, known as the ISPS Code. By July 1, 55,000
ships and 20,000 port facilities worldwide must
implement a new, three level security regime.
Even
governments such as India's that do not look kindly upon the IMO,
readily agreed to adopt the ISPC Code in December 2002.
Launched in aftermath of the attacks on the US on
September 11, 2001, the code will rule international
shipping: passenger ships, high-speed passenger crafts,
cargo ships including high-speed crafts over 500 gross
tonnage. After the July deadline, any vessel without an
International Ship Security Certificate showing ISPS
Code compliance will lose its right to maritime trade.
Ship to shore signals
The ISPS Code
will require a ship security alert system that can
covertly notify shore authorities in the event of
trouble and development of long range identification and
tracking systems for ships, among other measures. The
code also demands clear details on the ownership and
origin of the ship. Besides terrorism and piracy, the
ISPS Code aims to fight smuggling, human trafficking and
arms running.
The threat of a terrorist strike
and the growing incidence of piracy in 2003 were a
combination too frightening to ignore for the maritime
industry that carries 80 percent of global goods. In a
world where pirates generally conjure images of theft of
intellectual property such as software, movies, music
and books, 21st century versions of Blackbeard and
Captain Kidd routinely wreak havoc on ships at sea (see
Jolly Roger
business, Aug 14, 2001).
Pirate attacks have tripled over the past decade,
according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and
continue accelerating, with financial losses from
maritime crime conservatively estimated at US$16
billion.
IMB reported 416 pirate attacks
worldwide during the first nine months of 2003, compared
with 271 during the same period of 2002. IMB - a
division of the International Chamber of Commerce
focused on crime prevention and based in Essex, England
- runs a piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur and
publishes a weekly summary of pirate attacks worldwide.
Tempting terror targets
IMB's weekly
summaries could get bleaker. Merchant navies could be
tempting targets for terrorists, particularly as the
US-led occupation of Iraq continues and security
tightens in airports and overland. Security consultants
say there's evidence that al-Qaeda has noted
vulnerabilities at sea. A worried Lloyd's of London has
ranked an attack on a cruise ship to be "a high
likelihood".
Tan's FASA represents over 8,885
ships among 460 ship owners and shipping companies in
the ASEAN region. The Malacca Strait between Indonesia
and Malaysia, used by over 600 ships daily, has long
held first place for shipping lane piracy. Tan warns
that ships may use alternate routes if piracy is not
curbed.
Tan's worries about the twin dangers of
terrorism and piracy are shared worldwide. In December,
the United Kingdom shipping industry urged the UN to act
against pirates. The International Transport Workers
Federation also joined in the chorus. More than 30
countries have sought IMO help to implement the ISPS
Code.
The Mumbai-based Indian National Ship
Owners Association (INSA) is helping members implement
the ISPS Code. S K Bhalla, an advisor to INSA, agrees
that maritime shipping presents a soft target for
terrorists. He tells Asia Times Online that 200 Indian
ships will be covered by the code and that 70 percent of
the ships will have their security plans ready this
month. In addition, 13 major Indian ports, 36 minor
ports and 10 shipyards will have to comply.
The
biggest difficulty in ISPS Code compliance has been
availability of required security equipment such as ship
alerts, Bhalla complains. The Code is reportedly fueling
a maritime security business boom estimated at more than
$1 billion.
Container confidence
Other maritime security measures are already in
place. The US engineered the Container Security
Initiative (CSI) to protect the estimated 48 million
full cargo containers that move between the world's
major seaports annually. Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo,
Yokohama and Shanghai are among leading Asian ports
implementing CSI, and Malaysia and Thailand say they'll
also comply.
CSI, under the Border and
Transportation Security directorate in the new US
Department of Homeland Security, also allows reciprocal
security measures. A team of US officers are stationed
in Hong Kong, the world's leading container handling
port, scrutinizing approximately 560,000 sea containers
bound for US harbors annually, and Hong Kong customs
officials are stationed in the US to check containers
heading towards their port.
CSI measures include
electronic sensors that will show if a container's doors
have been tampered with, devices expected to be in place
by the end of this month, making it evident that
terrorism fears are providing international cures to
fight the menace of maritime crime and other ills
afflicting international trade.
(Copyright 2004
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
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