これらの点からも、昨年(1999年)11月下旬のASEAN首脳会議で小渕首相が提案して合意された海賊対策会議に期待したい。外務省を中心に、四月の東京での国際会議に向けて準備が進められているが、これこそシーレーンの最大利用国である我が国がイニシアティブを取るべきチャンスである 。海賊対策という差し迫った課題を契機として「OPK」の構想が具体化されることが期待される。(川村純彦研究所・代表 かわむら・すみひこ)
資料(3)：上記論文の英訳
Pirates of the 21st Century
Japan's Role in Keep Ocean Peace
Sumihiko Kawamura
It might be hard to believe that today, as we are entering the 21st century, pirates still exist, and in fact, Japanese ships have been attacked. According to the statistics of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), whose piracy information is the most reliable in the world, some 200 attack reports are submitted every year. Further more, many of those attacks occur in the sea area of Southeast Asia and the South China Sea, where many ships pass through to and from Japan. Recent piracy and armed robbery against ships tend to be attacks on tankers and freighters in order to rob cargo such as petroleum and aluminum ingots, which are supposed be relatively easy to exchange into money.
I would like to discuss future measures against piracies while introducing some cases of recent pirates attacks, since I believe this is a problem of which every Japanese should be aware. The situation will only worsen if we just ignore them: a Japanese crew might be killed someday, the insurance price for the cargo will go up, and then prices will rise as well.
Present Condition of the Pirates
The Alondra Rainbow (Rainbow) was a 7,762t cargo ship owned by Imura Lines Ltd. Fifteen of the crew of seventeen were Filipino and the other two were Japanese, the captain and chief engineer. The night of October 22, 1999, the Rainbow loaded approximately 7,000t of aluminum ingots and departed Kuala Tanjung, Sumatra Island, for Miike, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Only two hours after the departure it was attacked. Some ten men armed with guns and swords threw a rope onto the deck and climbed up. They were sneaky enough to use a high-speed boat in the night darkness. First of all, the pirates went straight to occupy the bridge and all the communication systems. Then they confined the crew in one place after binding the crew's hands behind their backs and putting blindfolds on them.
The deprived Rainbow started to sail in opposite direction from the original destination. The next morning, the crew were transferred to an old cargo ship, of 1,500 to 2,000 t, which had approached to the Rainbow. In the ship, there were some ten men. The bound and blindfolded Rainbow crew were confined to a small room for six days. In the meantime the Rainbow disappeared.
Early in the morning, October 29, the pirates transferred all of the crew of seventeen to a life raft, with only one day's water and food to survive but no navigation equipment. The pirates said, “Go wherever you want,” and they were gone.
