KARACHI, Dec 17: While the UN is striving to curb piracy in the Gulf of Aden, private firms have jumped into the business to replace regular navies for safely escorting merchant ships.

According to Lloyds list a number of leading US-based private security contractors are looking at raising a flotilla of armed anti-piracy vessels to deploy them in the troubled waters of the Gulf of Aden.

If this was allowed it would mean that the role of protecting commercial vessels may shift from regular navies to private agencies. Ports and shipping experts said this would not only create anarchy but would also add to the cost of ship owners, who are already paying hefty premium to their insurance underwriters.

With around 120 vessels moving towards Suez or the Indian Ocean per day, it will be a good business for private security contractors. Presently, ship owners are getting insurance cover under Hull policy or war risk premium.

While the world is blaming Somalia for ships piracy, reports say that ransom payments and negotiations are taking place in London with lawyers charging hefty sums from ship owners and their underwriters for release of ships and hostages.

“What a paradox, we are being advised by all to behave whilst London is said to be hub of all negotiations for ransom demanded by pirates,” ports and shipping experts requesting anonymity said.

It is also being debated that if pirates have links to terrorists, the ransom payments being made at London will become illegal under the UK law, they added.

Meanwhile, a serious controversy has risen in European Parliament suggesting that piracy should be defined as criminal act rather than an act of war. Such a re-definition will enable navies to arrest pirates and bring them to justice.

Lawyers taking up pirates cases, generally get relief for their clients on argument that the action of navies is illegal under the international law. Lawyers seek protection under Geneva Convention, which defines piracy as an act of war, therefore, prisoners of war (PoWs) have to be released.

Captain Anwar Shah, the governor World Maritime University, Malmao (Sweden) told Dawn the world community should not allow such move to succeed where the role of regular navies was minimised and the security task of merchant ships and sea routes is handed over to private security contractors or mercenaries.

He further said that the definition of piracy as an act of crime should not be altered and should stay as an act of crime. If allowed, he said, it would give free hand to dominant nations to detain and punish innocent people as well.

While talks for a new UN Resolution continues in coordination with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) it appears that the new law, which is being framed with active participation of Indian UN representative and US Secretary of State, may establish the right of navies to arrest pirates and hand them over for prosecution, either in the flag state of the ship or a third country in the Gulf of Aden region.

However, Capt Shah stressed the need to involve all the regional navies in combating the menace of piracy and no single country should be given the dominant role as this may cause security problem for many countries.

The UN resolution should explicitly define what naval authorities can or cannot do, so that no human rights or territorial violations of regional countries were committed, he added.