.3 as offenders may be involved in other kinds of offences, piracy and armed robbery against ships should not be viewed in isolation and useful information should, therefore, be sought in existing criminal records;
.4 systems should be in place to ensure that potentially useful information is disseminated to all appropriate parties, including investigators.
59 On alerting by ships under attack or threat of attack and alerting of other ships in the area to the incident:
Taking into account the following existing recommendations:
- providing that the ship has not been ordered by pirates to maintain radio silence, contact should immediately be made with ships in the vicinity and shore authorities by sending a piracy/armed robbery attack message through Inmarsat or on an available digital selective calling (DSC) or other distress and safety frequency (MSC/Circ.805, paragraph 4);
- an immediate post attack report should be made to the relevant rescue co-ordination centre (RCC) and, through it, to the law enforcement agencies or naval authorities of the coastal State concerned (MSC/Circ.623, paragraph 56); and
- on receipt of radio reports of an attack, the RCC or other agency involved must take the following immediate action: Warn shipping in the immediate area that an attack is taking place, in order to reduce the risk of collision enhanced by the victim vessel possibly being 'Not Under Command' (NUC) (MSC/Circ.622, chapter 1, paragraph 21.2),
the following are recommended:
- immediately upon receipt of an alert or a post attack report, as appropriate, the RCC concerned should alert other ships in the area to the incident utilizing any appropriate communication means available to it, in order to create or increase their awareness;
- harmonized procedures and guidelines on communication means for alerting other ships in the area should be developed by IMO; and
- the standard message format for piracy attack alerts contained in appendix 1 to MSC/Circ.623 should be reviewed and, as appropriate, further developed.
60 On further development of regional co-operation:
- a regional agreement to facilitate co-ordinated response at the tactical as well as the operational level should be concluded between the countries concerned. Such an agreement should specify how information would be disseminated; establish joint command and control procedures (a regional incident command system); ensure efficient communications; set policies for joint operations and hot pursuit; establish the links between entities involved in all maritime security matters; establish joint specialized training and the exchange of views between investigators; and establish joint exercises between tactical and operational entities.
