1. At the outset I must congratulate the Ship and Ocean Foundation and the Institute for Ocean Policy for taking this initiative to hold a Japan-India Dialogue on Ocean Security. I am glad to note that the Institute for Ocean Policy regards the security of the Indian Ocean as vitally important. I fully agree with this view concept and although this is a Japan-India Dialogue, the security of the Indian Ocean is vitally important not only for Japan and India but also for all other users of the Indian Ocean, for all the other littoral States and for the extra regional powers whose vital interest in terms of trade flows through this Ocean. I thank the Ship and Ocean Foundation for inviting me to this Dialogue, which is very dear to my heart, having been the Vice Chief of the Indian Navy and the Director General of the Indian Coast Guard, which was responsible for apprehending the Japanese Pirated Vessel Alondra Rainbow in 1999. But I will come to that a little later.

　

2. In olden days the sea was considered a divider, but today the sea is a joiner, a bridge between countries with a coastline. In fact alliances and relationships between nations have changed due to the position and locations of countries vis-a-vis the sea. Within the comity of nations, trade has become the single most important binder; and the major part of trade is carried on the sea. In fact 95 per cent of the world's trade by volume travels in ships' bottoms. Shipping is the easiest and most economical means of carriage of goods or cargo today. Therefore, the old term sea lines of communication should now be termed economic highways or economic super expressways considering the billions of dollars worth of cargo being carried on these routes. This is especially true for large and bulk cargoes. Of course, the most important commodity carried on the sea is oil,- fuel oil. The requirement is so great that oil is often carried from the focal oil producing areas even half way around the globe. Today, I will speak on Piracy, Terrorism, Disasters, Illegal Activities and Transnational Crimes.

　

3. The sea having become the busy traffic lane, the users need to be protected with rules or organisations to prevent accidents, to search and rescue those mariners in distress due to accidents or faulty ships or equipment, to protect users and coastal people during natural disasters such as hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, tidal waves/tsunamis. The sea is also a source for mineral and non-mineral wealth such as fish, sea weed, algae; and oil, minerals in the form of metallic nodules, medicinal compounds etc. Incidentally, the food source in the distant future is likely to come from the protein rich algae from the sea. Therefore, there is a requirement to ensure the ecological balance by preventing over fishing or destruction of the mangroves or coral reefs which are the cradle for sea life. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has drawn up comprehensive rules for Search and Rescue and has demarcated the SAR areas together with the Maritime Regional Coordination Centres and with the GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress Support System) which lays down the mandatory equipment and communication channels to be manned. The IMO has also laid down rules to prevent over-fishing and to protect endangered species. Each of the coastal states has also laid its own rules on maritime security, protection, safety and crime. Especially during Search and Rescue and natural calamities/disasters there is an urgent requirement for cooperation between neighbouring countries or with countries which have the facilities/equipment to deal with a disaster or oil spill. It is best that these arrangements are made and MOU's signed to be brought into force in an emergency. Also such arrangements should be tried out in exercises and mock drills.

　

4. Besides these, there is a certain amount of policing required to prevent drug running and gun running against legal Governments, as also to prevent human smuggling, illegal immigration and environmental crimes. In the last 20 years we have also seen the resurrection of an old scourge, i.e. Piracy. This last crime has recently gained major attention in view of the deadly and cruel means used, and the ease with which such criminals get away. Piracy is also linked with other crimes such as ghost ships and white collared crimes of maritime fraud. The single crime of Piracy has the effect of deterring mariners from putting to sea and looking for shore jobs, thus taking up the cost of wages, insurance and transportation ? overall taking up the cost of goods at the destination. If Piracy is not snuffed out here and how, it may have the effect of strangling sea trade. Fortunately, a few countries and the IMO are introducing measures to deal with this crime, but it requires concerted action by all countries to wipe out this scourge. It may not be out of place to mention that it was the Indian Navy and Coast Guard which captured the first ever pirated ship at sea with cargo, pirates et al - the Japanese ship "Alondra Rainbow" - the first time this was done in over a hundred years. Great daring, quick action and good cooperation by a number of agencies such as shipping companies, ports and Govts helped the Indian forces to bring the pirates to their knees. But besides putting out the fire on board the Alondra Rainbow and then preventing her sinking by de-flooding, the post action interrogation and analysis threw new light on the modus operandi of pirates, their contacts, hideouts and their linkages with international syndicates. This was at least a starting point on the mysterious ways of pirates and piracy.

　

5. A study of modern day Piracy reveals the causes as the disparity in economic well being of certain countries, unemployment of educated youth and mariners and their financial desperation which makes them take risks despite threat of severe punishment. The small number of crews on modern day merchant vessels, availability of high speed boats, the large expanse of water and the seamless boundaries of maritime zones make it very easy for rogue ships to avoid detection. The institution of syndicates and organized crimes further helps pirates and piracies with easy solutions.

　

6. Ships too do not report all cases especially of armed robbery in coastal waters as the relatively small financial loss of personal belongings is little compared to the loss of even a days earnings of the ship's business, as invariably a ship is detained by the State Authorities for investigations. Another factor for the rise in Piracy is the reduction and Naval strengths of the Worlds maritime powers i.e. USA, UK, Russia and France after the Cold War especially in South East Asia. Many of the local Navies/Coast Guards do not have adequate funds to build forces to fill the vacuum.

　

7. Another important aspect that came to light was the inadequacy of the legal systems among most countries ? after the Alondra Rainbow was brought to port in Mumbai and the pirates apprehended, the Japanese Govt. did not want to take over the offenders as at that time the offence was outside the jurisdiction of Japan's laws. Even in India, recourse had to be taken to a clause that all laws passed prior to Independence (1947) would continue to remain in effect and, therefore, the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act of 1849 and the Admiralty Jurisdiction (India) Act of 1860 were used to charge the Pirates. Hence it is not just the preventive action that needs to be taken, but also the legal laws that need to be amended or enacted.

　

8. The above examples are but an indicator to show why there is need for cooperation between the users of the Sea and among nations who may be well separated in distance yet connected by the Sea. Firstly, it is important to remember that three quarters of this world is covered by Sea and almost 60 per cent of the world's population lives within 300 Kilometers of the Sea. Various Seas and Oceans have gained importance at different times. It is now the turn of the Indian Ocean. The American strategist Alfred T. Mahan said that "whoever controls the Indian Ocean would control Asia, that this is the key to the Seven Seas, in the 21st Century the destiny of the world would be decided on its waters. How true has that forecast come. We can already see that there are more than 150 warships at any time in the North Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf and they belong to nations as far away as Japan, New Zealand, USA, Canada and Europe. This has happened because of two important reasons; one is that the Middle East contains the world's greatest reserves of fuel oil and gas - 60 per cent of the world's fuel oil reserves and 26 per cent of the world's gas reserves are concentrated in the Middle East. As such every day 15.5 million barrels of oil flow out through the Strait of Hormuz. Some of it goes West via the Red Sea and the Cape of Good Hope and 50 percent goes East through the Strait of Malacca. Many of the Eastern economies like Korea, Japan and China get a large proportion of their oil imports from the Middle East. For example, Japan, which consumes about 270 million tonnes of oil a year, imports almost 240 million tonnes from the Middle East. Similarly, Korea imports 70 percent of its oil from the Middle East. China, which was self-sufficient in oil production till a few years ago, has now started relying on imports and now imports 55 million tonnes of oil annually from the Middle East.

　

9. Every year 80000 ships transit the Indian Ocean. Of these about 200 ships transit the Strait of Malacca daily carrying 10.3 million barrels of oil per day. The traffic situation itself is quite precarious and, therefore, the IMO has drawn up traffic separation schemes for the Strait of Malacca and for other busy waterways and narrow Straits. We can well imagine what would be the result of a major disaster in any these Straits. Although a number of countries and oil companies have set up emergency oil pollution control centres with modern equipment for containing and moping up oil spills, yet, they are not sufficient to deal with a major disaster and most of them cannot even reach the scene of disaster in time. Further an important method of controlling oil spills is by using dispersants from aircraft. But these themselves are toxic and can cause harm to the marine life and the food fish which can in turn effect the complete food chain. I am sure that you are aware of an incident that took place in the Philip Channel a few years ago. The pirates boarded an oil tanker and mustered the whole crew including the officer of the deck and the helmsman in a central place, and the ship transited for 2 hours on auto pilot without any look out or person on watch. In that busy channel we can well imagine what the result would have been if the ship had collided with any other ship. A real nightmare.

　

10. It is because of such incidents and such reasons that all peace loving nations need to come together to cooperate in various fields to prevent man-made crimes, natural disasters and crimes against humanity. This cooperation needs to go beyond normal politics and mariners should be shaking hands across the Sea despite political compulsions that Governments may have. In this respect, the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) and certain other non-Governmental Organisations have taken steps to;

　

11. The IMB report for 2002 states that there were 370 attacks on ships in 2002, as only 107 in 1991. Incidents of violence have also increased with 327 cases in 2002 compared to 42 in 1991. In most cases knives are used as the weapons of attack. The majority of piracy attacks have occurred in the South East Asian region as also the majority of armed attacks. In fact two thirds of the total number of incidents have taken place in seven areas mainly in South East Asia. The IMO and the IMB have taken large steps in terms of conferences, seminars and guidelines for prevention of Piracy. The IMB has set up the Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) in Kuala Lumpur, which coordinates round the clock all reports of piracy and armed robbery at Sea, and warns other mariners and ships' companies and sends out a regular alerts. In fact, the apprehension of the Ship Alondra Rainbow by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard started with Piracy Alerts being put up by the Piracy Reporting Centre, Kuala Lumpur.

　

12. Fraud is another very costly crime, which may be bloodless, but could cause complete bankruptcy of companies and could effect the economies of smaller countries. Maritime fraud includes:-

13. Transnational Ocean Crimes ? In 1970 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Declaration of Principles based on the recommendations of its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of the Sea Bed and Ocean Floor beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. This was the Sea Bed Committee. This Committee was set up in an effort to demarcate the world's ocean space to resolve issues relating to access and to prevent further disputes from arising. After consultations and negotiations between more than 150 countries, a draft Treaty was worked out and placed before the General Assembly only in 1982. This was the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). But even this Convention took 12 years for technical and legal reasons for the required 60 instruments for ratification, to be deposited in the UN. The Convention came into force only on 16 Nov 1994. This has a significant and substantial regulatory package and all contraventions will now become crimes, which will be transnational

　

14. The lines were drawn laying out the maritime zones of various States i.e. the territorial sea upto 12 nautical miles, the contiguous zone or Customs waters upto 24 nautical miles, the EEZ upto 200 nautical miles and now the extension of the EEZ even beyond 200 nautical miles upto the continental shelf. The rights and obligations in terms of organisation and machinery to enforce the Laws of the Sea were also laid down. The obligations of each State are within their maritime zones but some of these areas are mutually excluded.

　

15. Piracy is a form of barratry and may be examined on two contexts ? international and domestic. The first, which is piracy jure gentium concerns with piratical attacks against international laws to which a large number of States subscribe. The second comes within the Domestic Law. However, it has been seen that the International Laws and Domestic Laws of certain countries are not in agreement most of the times, and this affects the definition of piracy. This becomes even more difficult when terrorism is involved i.e. the piratical attacks are carried out for political reasons for a wider community. Piracy is generally limited to private purposes.

　

Terror

　

16. 9/11 has woken the world to a new weapon i.e. Terror. Of course, we in India have been subject to this weapon and form of warfare since the mid 1980□fs. Yet the world only realised this potential on 9/11. We are not at all happy about 9/11 but it has been an excellent wake up call for the whole world to realise that this is an international weapon with no land borders. Most of the terror in India originates across international borders and so does it across the world. The idea is born in one country, the plans are made in the next, weapons in a third, the terrorists may come from different countries across the globe who are indoctrinated with a fundamentalism and the explosives, weapons and plans are carried to a still different country where innocent civilians are targetted. Terrorism has no face and terrorists generally act in a cowardly manner behind the back or behind the faces of simple civilians, women and children. Thus it is a very unequal war and a few terrorists can tie down a few thousand troops.

　

17. Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist of Al Queda fame is a Saudi national working out of Afghanistan with a network spreading from the USA to Europe, Africa, Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia. He has also become a role model for budding terrorists and many of the notorious terror organisations such as Lashkar e Toiba, Jaish e Mohammed, and Abu Sayyaf have been founded by various terrorists but owe allegiance to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Thus this is a menance spreading like a cancer. The mighty USA and a coalition of more than 14 countries has not been able to tame the Al Queda. Osama had declared that the most important enemies of Islam were USA, Israel and India. Nevertheless, serious and severe bomb attacks have taken place not only in USA, Israel and India but also in other countries such as Indonesia and East Africa where US or allied materials and personnel were targeted. This only goes to show that besides certain specific countries, any other country can be a target and hence no target is safe from Terror. Besides the Al Queda and allied groups there are other groups/cults in various parts of the world such as the LTTE in Sri Lanka, various other groups in India and Pakistan and the Om Cult in Japan which carried out a gas attack in an underground station.

　

18. Terrorists are difficult enough to be caught on land which has roads and known areas for hiding and where surveillance and blockades/barriers/patrols are fairly easy to institute. One can imagine the difficulty of dealing with them at sea where once over the horizon they can be lost over 3/4th of the earth's surface which is the ocean. It is only when one puts out to sea ? a few hours out of harbour and the biggest ship is only a small dot with water all around as far as the eye can see ? that one realizes how big the ocean is. As one writer put it, beyond the horizon, there is anarchy since whatever laws are made, they are very difficult to be implemented and law breakers can not only easily hide out of sight but also use the loopholes in the law to get away. And there are a large number of law breakers out there. Some are smuggling, or gun running or drug running or smuggling people or just dodging the law with some maritime fraud. This is not difficult as ships documents can be forged or obtained for a price from flags of convenience. Changing the colour or name or port of registry is not difficult. The most dangerous activity is transportation of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists. Each state has to improve its marine policing force and the limit out of port that every ship must be examined. Ships need to increase the notice for entering a port to 3 to 4 days. The US authorities have also started X-raying/examining containers destined for the USA at the port of embarkation. But despite all these measures the US Coast Guard has not been able to implement all these measures or stop illegal immigration via the sea. A ship could easily blow itself up alongside or sink itself in the main channel thus blocking the main channel. Nevertheless, these measures are necessary as they act as a deterrent in a way. The problems are endless and an even bigger problem would be how to deal with a ship which is carrying radio active nuclear material for a bomb.