UN calls for worldwide criminalization of piracy

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Monday called on states around the world to criminalize piracy as a way of stepping up the campaign against record numbers of sea attacks.

The 15-member council unanimously agreed on a call for tougher legal weapons to be used against piracy that is now rife off the coast of Somalia and is spreading to other regions around Africa.

A resolution passed by the council "strongly" urged all states to make piracy a national crime and called for all 193 UN members to report by the end of the year on action they have taken to halt pirates, particularly those operating off Somalia.

The Security Council has been debating whether to back special anti-piracy courts in Somalia and other countries in East Africa. Hundreds of accused pirates are now in detention in jails around the world.

The International Maritime Bureau said last week that piracy has reached record levels with 352 attacks reported worldwide so far this year.

An IMB report said that despite the presence of an international flotilla of warships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, Somali pirates were intensifying their attacks and moving beyond their own coastline, including carrying out an attack on a tanker at anchor in an Omani port.

But while Somali pirates carried out 199 attacks this year, up from 126 attacks for the same period in 2010, they were only successful 12 percent of the time, compared to 28 percent of the time in 2010.

The report said that pirates had killed eight people so far this year and injured 41, with 625 hostages taken.

There has also been a surge of attacks off West Africa, with 19 recorded this year against none last year. (AFP)