| INTERNATIONAL MARITIME ORGANIZATION |
IMO
|
MSC 69/16
12 March 1998
Original:ENGLISH
|
MARITIME SAFETY COMMITTEE
69th session
Agenda item 16
PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY AGAINST SHIPS
Annual, quarterly and monthly reports
Note by the Secretariat
SUMMARY
|
| Executive
summary: |
1997 annual and monthly reports on acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships |
| Action to be taken: |
Paragraph 7 |
| Related documents: |
MSC/Circ.840 |
|
1 The Committee, at its sixty-fifth session in May 1995, instructed the Secretariat to issue, as from 31 July 1995, monthly reports of all incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships reported to the Organization and, in addition, on a quarterly basis, composite reports accompanied by an analysis, on a regional basis, of the situation and an indication whether the frequency of incidents is increasing or decreasing and advising on any new feature or pattern of significance.
2 At its sixty-sixth session in June 1996, the Committee (MSC 66/24, paragraph 16.6) instructed the Secretariat to prepare, after March of every year, an annual summary of all acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships, which had occurred during the previous year and had been reported to the Organization, based on their actual date and time of occurrence.
3 Information on reports of piracy and armed robbery against ships received by the Secretariat since 1984, when relevant statistics started being compiled and, in particular, those that occurred in the course of 1997 as well as a regional analysis thereof, has been circulated by means of MSC/Circ.840.
4 From that information, it emerges that the areas most affected (i.e. five incidents reported or more), over the period under review, were the Far East, in particular the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, South America and the Caribbean, East and West Africa and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. It also appears that, over the period under review, the number of incidents, reported to have occurred in 1996 and 1997, decreased from 12 to 8 in the Malacca Strait and from 121 to 101 in the South China Sea. Most of the attacks worldwide were reported in territorial waters while the ships were at anchor or berthed. In many of the reports received, the crews were violently attacked by groups of five to ten people carrying guns.
5 The number of incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships which occurred in 1997, as reported to the Organization, was 252, an increase of 24 over the figure for 1996; whilst the total number of such unlawful acts reported to have occurred from 1984 to the end of 1997 was 1069.
6 With regard to acts of piracy and armed robbery against ships reported to the Organization since MSC 68, information thereon has been circulated by means of MSC/Circ.786, MSC/Circ.791, MSC/Circ.793, MSC/Circ.817, MSC/Circ.820, MSC/Circ.821, MSC/Circ.823, MSC/Circ.826, MSC. /Circ.830, MSC/Circ.831, MSC/Circ.835 and MSC/Circ.839.
Action requested of the Committee
7 The Committee is invited to note the information provided and take action as appropriate.
For reasons of economy, this document is printed
in a limited number. Delegates are kindly asked to
bring their copies to meetings and not to request
additional copies.
|
I:/MSC/69/16.WPD
