SINGAPORE
As a maritime nation with the world's busiest port and the world's eighth largest merchant fleet, Singapore has been active at the national, regional and international levels in its quest to fight piracy and armed robbery against ships. At the national level, the Police Coast Guard, as the lead agency, has been vigilant in its patrols of Singapore waters. Singapore advises the shipping community to take precautionary measures, such as preparing anti-attack plan, enhanced surveillance, installing detection equipment and radio and alarm procedures, to reduce the risk of piratical and sea robbery attacks, and providing contact points in the event of piratical incidents. These national efforts have been succesful as there have not been a case of sea robbery in Singapore's waters since 1991. At the regional level, since 1992, the law enforcement agencies in Singapore and Indonesia have established an arrangement, known as the Indonesia-Singapore Co-ordinated Patrols Arrangement, to conduct co-ordinated patrols.
THAILAND
Thailand has established a co-ordination center, called the Maritime Enforcement Co-ordination Center, which works closely and has joint operations with the Navy Marine Police, the Harbour Department and other authority units. It is under the control of the National Security Council (NSC).
One problem is that nobody knows when or where pirates will attack. Sometimes incidents are reported several weeks after they have occurred. It is therefore too late to carry out a proper investigation. As the pirates are likely to have a land base, the strategy is to maintain surveillance and apprehend them on land rather than try to pursue them at sea.
To be able to do this, however, all incidents need to be reported as soon as possible after they have occurred.
VIETNAM
Vietnam is located in a particularly important geographical area endowed with rich natural resources. With a length of over 3000 kms of coastline, there are lagoons, bays and seaports with good anchorages for ships. Many estuaries penetrate deeply inland creating a network of sea-land transport systems. There are islands within Vietnam's territorial waters, others far from land which provide good cover for pirates to lurk and operate. As an important international shipping route, ships of many nationalities pass Vietnamese waters to and from different destinations. This makes it difficult to maintain adequate security.
Because of its good geographical conditions, rich natural resources and the development of shipping businesses, the area is attractive for pirates to operate. Because of the good co-operation between the Marine Police, the Navy and border police, Vietnam is achieving good results in its fight against unlawful acts at sea. According to statistics from January 1991 to June 1998 in the territorial sea of Vietnam, there were 263 cases of piracy and armed robbery mainly in the Northeastern and Southwestern parts of the South China Sea. Those cases caused serious losses of life and property - 36 dead, 24 wounded and 1 still missing and loss of millions of dollars of property.
Anti-piracy forces of Vietnam have dealt with 27 cases, arrested 97 pirates and confiscated 30 different equipment, 11 AK machine guns, 2 M79 rifles, 1 ruler pistol and 79 bullets.
The Vietnam Marine Police is the law enforcement agency of the Government.
