Piracy: The Two Faces of High Seas Crime by an Indian Naval Officer
By Lieutenant Commander Akash Chaturvedi, Indian Navy
Maritime piracy and maritime terrorism must be tackled with a unified effort.
Piracy off Somalia and the Horn of Africa is again the focus of attention due to a steep increase in the frequency of attacks that have grown more violent and aggressive. These attacks have shifted to the high seas, even beyond the established naval patrol corridor in the Gulf of Aden. In 2009, piracy in this region has gone up by 126 percent.1 This increase has occurred despite a host of measures, including the passage of four resolutions by the United Nations in 2008, the deployment of multinational naval forces by more than a dozen countries, improvements in reporting systems of merchantmen, and establishing of a safety corridor for transit of merchant ships.2